Residents of Lawani Street, off Ishaga Road, Surulere Area of Lagos State, have sent a Save-our-Soul (SoS) to the state governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and all security agencies over frequent robbery attacks on the street.
According to reports, the dare-devil robbers usually operate in a group between 2 am – 3:30 am, had been attacking the street since last year, and had raided the area four times in two weeks in this month of July alone.
The residents claimed that property worth millions of naira had so far been lost to the frequent robbery attacks on the street.
Narrating her ordeal in the latest incident, which happened on Tuesday, July 18th, one of the affected landladies on the street, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said some of the robbers climbed her fence and jumped unto the balcony of her one-storey building to gain entrance into the compound.
The traumatized aged woman said the robbers, who came with various dangerous weapons, including guns, cutlasses, and knives, unscrewed her television set from the wall, collected money running into thousands of naira, laptops, and mobile phones from the occupants of the building.
Another resident, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, claimed that the robbers were young men who usually threatened to gun down any residents bold enough to challenge them, saying that they were also in the habit of vandalising cars, especially Toyota and Lexus.
Also speaking, another affected resident recalled how men employed to guard the gate of the street were tied up during one of the incidents, recalling that one of the security men was even taken away and later dumped on the way to Ilasa via Idi-Araba from where he made his way back and promptly resigned due to the trauma he experienced.
The residents lamented that despite incessant reports of the robbery attacks made to the police, who usually send officers to assess the post-incidence damages, the robbers had not stopped coming to the area to cause havoc.
The residents, therefore, appealed to the Lagos State Governor, Mr Babjide Sanwo-Olu, and for the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Idowu Owohunwa and the Divisional Police Officer in that area to deploy more patrol at night to protect their lives and properties.