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A young man who allegedly stole a motorbike, was beaten to death and roasted in the Adesina area of Lagos on Monday night.
Residents say the slain young man belonged in a cult that has unleashed mayhem on the neighborhood for years.
The next day, friends of the slain young man armed with pistols, stormed the Ilamoye bus stop area of Lagos at about 7:30pm, robbed everyone seated in a bus that had just parked to drop and lift commuters, and shot two young men from point blank range.
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“I saw it all unfold”, says Ayorinde who had just alighted from a friend’s car inside Ilamoye street to pick up groceries from a store, before gunshots rang round the quiet end of a usually boisterous Oshodi-Apapa expressway. “I was about to hit the expressway to join the bus to Cele when the security personnel stationed at Ilamoye asked me to run back…that robbers were dispossessing people of their wallets and gadgets at gunpoint. I could well have been shot too if I didn't stop to pick up groceries…”
Reprisal attacks and a neighborhood of crime
Pulse has been told that the dare-devil robbers who fleeced commuters at Ilamoye bus stop on the night, had stormed the neighborhood to avenge the death of the alleged motorbike thief who was burnt alive at Adesina the day before.
The nozzle of a pistol (Guardian)
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“It was a reprisal attack. They had been trailing the boys who they think were part of the persons who roasted their friend the night before. At Ilamoye, they decided to rob everyone at the bus-stop before shooting the boys dead”, says Mojeed, a private security guard who watches over a nondescript property on Adesina in Ijesha.
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The day after two young men were shot dead in Ilamoye, one of the alleged perpetrators was trailed to his home and shot dead as well.
"Someone recognized him from the robbery scene of the day before because they robbed without masks. Word went round, so he was traced to his home and shot dead. It's been gun violence all week in Ijesha", says Akintayo who runs a kiosk in the Omilani neighbourhood.
Pulse sources disclose that shootings and robberies are now commonplace on the stretch of truck laden, dilapidated road straddling Oshodi/Mile 2 and Apapa.
“In the early hours of the morning when people are waiting at bus stops to go to work, thieves on Okada seize phones at Cele, Ilamoye, Sanya, Agunlejika, Ilasamaja bus stops. The whole of the Apapa-Oshodi expressway is not safe because it is rarely lit up at night. You only have street lights on certain sections of what is a pot-hole filled, dilapidating road. At Charity bus stop, robbers lay in wait to rob motorists as traffic builds up. The government should please come to our aid”, lamented Mama Busayo who sells fabric at Aswani market, Lagos.
Communities on the Oshodi-Apapa expressway have become robbery hot spots (Guardian)
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Other residents of Isolo, Oshodi, Festac, Mile 2 and 2nd Rainbow, also shared tales of the incessant robberies that go on unchecked in their suburbs, in spite of heavy police presence inside dingy street corners on the mainland.
Police spokesperson, Chike Otti, could not be immediately reached for comments on the spate of armed robberies in Ijesha and environs when Pulse repeatedly rang his phone.
Residents of Ijesha have now resorted to self help to keep themselves safe from the rampaging cultists, even though police raids for miscreants in the area are very frequent.
Neighborhood vigilantes shutter gates at midnight, chant war songs and stare down everyone making their way home, in a bid to prevent the robber cultists from overrunning entire streets.
Cult wars are common in Lagos' overcrowded neighborhoods and suburbs.
