This should interest Solomon Arase, the Inspector General of Police, IGP. Armed robbers in military uniform have sustained robbery attacks on hapless passengers, mainly indigenes of Kogi Sate from the eastern part, returning home for the festive season for the past 48 hours!
The attacks began on Christmas Eve with one particular first hand account. A traveling told this reporter that on that fateful day, precisely at about 7 pm, news came to the driver of a bus heading towards Anyigba from Lagos, that armed robbers were operating at Adogo, under a bridge along the Okene-Itobe road. The driver pulled up and broke the news to the passengers who agreed to wait for other vehicles heading in the same direction. Luckily two other buses arrived and all three continued the journey. The passengers of the three buses were all apprehensive and prayed for divine intervention. Unfortunately, at the exact spot, ten marauding robbers in military uniform appeared on the road, shooting sporadically into the air and forced all the three buses to stop. The robbers broke into three groups and commanded the passengers of the buses to disembark and lie down flat with their faces to the ground. They ransacked the personal belongings of all the passengers and took only their money. Those that didn’t have money were shot in the leg, it turned out later that quite a few actually died from the gun shots.
While the robbery lasted, help was not forthcoming. After the operation, the buses continued the journey only to run into a police detachment supposedly patrolling the “express” few kilometers from the scene of the robbery. Both the drivers of the buses and passengers told the policemen about the robbery incident but they were not interested!
The passengers concluded that the policemen were working in concert with the robbers, otherwise why wouldn’t they rush to the scene of the robbery to, at least investigate? The conspiracy theory gained ground this morning when more passengers testified that the robbers have not yet left that spot and have continued to rob travelers of their valuables. Indeed, at several Churches during the Christmas service at Anyigba earlier today, many people testified how they survived the robbery attacks at Adogo.
Why is the Kogi State police command closing its eyes to the plight of travelers along the Okene-Itobe road? Perhaps, the state police is hamstrung for reasons not known to the general public, which is why the federal command should rise to the occasion.
The state of the road itself, which lends itself to robbery attacks, is a mockery of democracy. A road that was once the pride of the nation is now a death trap as travelers have to navigate potholes, graters and often have to detour through narrow paths in villages to avoid several failed portions, in the process becoming sitting ducks for armed robbers.
Do travelers on the Okene-Itobe road deserve this torrid experience in the hands of armed robbers? Should the police be looking the other way while robbers are having a field day on the Okene-Itobe road? These are questions begging for answers.