Robbers Develop New Technique In Akwa Ibom: "Keeps Gun In Casket"
Since
the Akwa Ibom State Government banned commercial motorcycles in Uyo,
the capital, residents have been having a hard time coping with the
activities of robbers and other criminals.
Many
residents have lost their possessions to armed robbers while commuting
in commercial tricyles, the alternative means of transportation in the
city.
Recounting her experience to CRIME DIGEST in
Uyo, one of the victims, Kindness Effiong, 24, said, “We were only two
passengers in the tricycle, a woman and myself. We were heading to
Nwaniba. The tricycle had hardly moved a short distance when a man
beckoned on the rider, walked up to him and asked to be taken to
Osongama Housing Estate. The rider then proceeded to Osongama without
seeking our consent.
“Immediately
the tricycle got to a secluded area, the man began to drag our bags. As
we struggled to wrest the bags from him, he brought out a gun and
pointed it at us. We surrendered everything we had to him. The robber
and the rider ordered us to get down from the tricycle and they zoomed
off.”
Another
victim, Bassey Okon, who was seen at the MTN office trying to retrieve a
SIM card, told our correspondent that he was robbed inside a tricycle
on Aug. 17.
Okon
had thought that roads in Uyo were safe, since motorcycles had been
banned and policemen patrolled various parts of the city. But he
discovered soon enough that he was wrong.
He
said, “I closed late from work that day at about 8.15 pm. I boarded the
tricycle to Nsikak Eduok Junction. Midway I was robbed of all I had. I
had to trek home that day.”
When
he was contacted for his reaction to the development, the chairman of
the Akwa Ibom branch of the Tricycles Association of Nigeria, Mr. Sunny
Enang, did not rule out the possibility that robbers were using
tricycles to attack their victims and dispossess them of their
belongings.
He
said, “Some hoodlums attempted to rob a local government agent who was
selling tickets. They used one tricycle operator. We were able to
apprehend some of them. When we took them to the police station, the
tricycle rider said the hoodlums had pretended as if they were normal
passengers. He did not know they were robbers. Sometimes, when it
happens like this, some of these tricycle operators are helpless and
they can do nothing about it.”
But
Enang noted that there were some bad eggs among commercial tricycle
operators in Uyo whose sole intention was to engage in criminal
activities.
“Some
of those who were using motorcycles to commit crime are here with us.
We are still trying to re-orientate them. If somebody has a criminal
motive in doing anything, that person will surely be caught. We are
pleading with them not to use tricycles for criminal activities. We are
all out to fish out the bad eggs,” he said.
He
said that TAN had a problem with harmonizing the various tricycle
riders’ bodies in Akwa Ibom until the latter agreed to unite, thereby
making it easy to tag every tricycle operating in the city.
Enang was optimistic that the measure would serve as a check to anybody desiring to use tricycles for crime.
Meanwhile,
the police in Akwa Ibom rescued four babies from traffickers and kept
them in the custody of a government-owned orphanage in the state.
Two
of the babies were rescued from the home of a suspected child
trafficker, Mfon Etuk, in Idoro, Uyo Local Government Area, while the
other two were rescued from buyers in Port Harcourt.
The suspect was arrested by detectives of the Police Anti-Kidnapping Squad.
Similarly,
a resident of Ikot Akpan community, Mrs. Roseline Asuquo and her five
children, were rescued from kidnappers and a Toyota RAV4 Sport Utility
Vehicle belonging to her was also recovered from the criminals.
In
a related development, a visitor to Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Ndem
Asuquo, narrowly escaped death when some hoodlums attacked him for
daring to rescue a girl that was being assaulted outside the premises of
the Akwa Ibom State Transportation Corporation.
CRIME DIGEST learnt that the girl was used as a bait to attract and rob passersby.
Ndem,
who is based in Port Harcourt, was attacked with sticks, knives and
bottles immediately he moved close to the girl and her ‘assailants.’
He
said, “I saw some men beating a girl and I thought the action was
improper. So, I went to mediate. But the girl suddenly disappeared.
Instead of the two men that were beating her, I saw six others.
“They
rushed at me with weapons. One of them stabbed me with a knife. They
were about to drag me away when some policemen arrived and they ran
away.”
A security man at the park told CRIME DIGEST that if the men had succeeded in dragging Asuquo away from the public glare, he would have been robbed and probably killed.
“He
was lucky that the policemen came. If they had dragged him farther,
there is no way he would have survived. Those boys are mean. They are
killers. They do things and nobody dares to challenge them,” he said.
But the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mr. Etim Dickson, ruled out murder.
He
said, “We can’t accept that many people have been killed when they come
into the state. If a few people have experienced problems, it is
different from being killed.
“With
the strategy that the police have put in place in the state, it will be
difficult for anybody or group of people to drag away anybody and
murder him. It is not possible.”
Dickson urged every resident of Uyo not to panic as the police would do everything possible to protect lives and property.
The
Commissioner of Police, Mr. Umar Gwadabe, on Friday in Uyo, said the
police would not relent in their efforts to fight criminals in Akwa Ibom
on all fronts.
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