Robbers terrorise Lagos drivers

LAGOS, Tuesday

It is Nigeria’s biggest city and has long been notorious for crippling traffic gridlock but frustrated drivers in Lagos are facing a new menace on the roads — armed robbery.

“Attacks in traffic are a major problem we are facing. People are complaining,” Lagos police spokesman Joseph Offor told AFP.

“Motorists and passengers are injured while others are dispossessed of their belongings.”

In the city’s eastern suburb of Oworonshoki, for example, robbers broke the car window of a woman driving alone to work last week, snatching her bag, two mobile phones and other personal effects.

“They fled into a bush and left her bleeding,” a witness told a phone-in on Lagos Traffic Radio 96.1 FM.

Another caller said he saw robbers breaking a car window with an axe and stealing all the occupants’ belongings at about 6.30am at Onikan, not far from a police headquarters annexe.

“Most attacks happen either in the early morning, when citizens are heading to work or returning home and caught up in tailbacks on roads,” said Offor.

CRIME STATISTICS SUSPENDED IN LAGOS

Fear of crime and actual crime have long been used as markers by police forces around the world to gauge the extent of the problem and introduce measures to fix it.

But with police having suspended publication of crime statistics in Lagos, whether the megacity of 20 million people has a real problem with violent crime depends who you talk to.

The Lagos state government recently reacted angrily to a report in The Economist magazine criticising what it said was rising crime and traffic chaos in the financial capital.

“Safety concerns are mounting as robbers pillage stuck cars while police are far away,” the publication said.

“Security experts reckon this is symptomatic of a broader increase in organised crime under a new and less competent state government.”

Government spokesman Steve Ayorinde described the article as reckless and slanderous, defending new Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s record since taking over from Babatunde Fashola in May.

For his part Offor said armed robbery in traffic was new to the police and attributed the problem to gridlocks and bad roads.

Security has been increased around the city as a result, he said, especially in areas notorious for traffic jams, such as the 11-kilometre-long Third Mainland Bridge.