Motorists in Lagos have lamented the rising incidents of attacks by traffic robbers in some parts of the state.
Politics Nigeria gathered that complaints came a few weeks after the State Police Command launched a special operation named “Operation Flush” to put an end to traffic robbery and other related crimes.
The state commissioner of Police, Idowu Owohunwa, in a meeting with all area commanders, divisional police officers, tactical commanders, and other strategic officers on July 27, charged them to review their respective security architecture towards achieving the goal.
Some road users, however, expressed concerns that the trend is yet to decline, adding that traffic robbers still carry out their operations in some parts of Lagos unhindered.
Some victims of the new wave of traffic robberies also recounted their ordeals.
A motorist, Samson Olanrewaju, said the robbers, numbering up to seven, robbed him and other motorists in the Ido area along the Third Mainland Bridge on Friday around 8.30pm.
Olanrewaju, who is the deputy chairman of the African Action Congress in the state, said, “I was coming back from work at Lekki, so I drove down the Third Mainland Bridge towards Ido, close to Ijora Olopa where the incident happened. There was light traffic. Those guys were robbing two cars ahead of me already. I couldn’t reverse because there was traffic. I immediately wound up the glass to at least protect myself.
“But as soon as they finished with those two cars, I just heard sounds from the two sides of my car, they broke the side windscreen and began demanding my phone and other things. They entered and removed money from my safe. They had cutlasses and knives. One of them removed everything in my safe, and made away with my power bank, an iPhone 6 and a laptop.”
Another victim, Adetunji, who said he fell victim the same night, noted that he lost N15,000, a wallet, and his phone to the robbers.
Some of the areas identified as hotspots for traffic robbery in Lagos include Ketu, Abule-Egba, Ijora, Orile-Iganmu, Apapa and Apongbon.
