Alausa robbery

By Patience Ogbo and Segun Balogun

ROBBERS USE JEEP TO TERRORISE Alausa visitors.
Workers and visitors at the Alausa secretariat are worried over the spate of robbery at the Alausa secretariat Ikeja the seat of power.
This follows the robbery on July 22nd when a gang of four men trailed an Accord salon car to the secretariat car park where they carted away millions of naira.
According to the police, the money belong to Lasun Yusuf an Osun state house of representative member who was at the secretariat to pay a courtesy visit to the Lagos state commissioner of information.
Mr. Yusuf told the police that he had withdrawn the sum of three million two hundred and fifty thousand naira from the Zenith bank at Ikeja and had successfully parked his car at the secretariat car park when he heard the alarm of his car ringing.
Eyewitnesses added that the gang came in a Land Rover jeep with registration number GB-878-ABC and had successfully stolen the money from the car but due to the alarm, they abandoned the jeep and ran on away
“When we heard the alarm go off we noticed that four men had hurriedly entered the jeep and they were running away, the people at the secretariat ran after them shouting ‘thief thief’ and they had to abandon their jeep and ran on their feet; while they were running, away they carried the money with them and a bundle of N500,000 fell down and was recovered.”
The police source added that a check on the car at the licensing office revealed the residence of the owner and his identity but when police trailed the suspect to his house at Akute area of the state , he had escaped with his family.
Early in May this year, a gang of armed robbers also raided the Lagos State Secretariat in Alausa carting away N3million.
The robbers reportedly burgled a Nissan Infinity SUV, with registration number FK670EKY, which belongs to a female contractor with the Lagos State Ministry of Rural Development, and was parked at the premises of the ministry. The owner of the vehicle, who came to see one of the directors in the ministry, was at a loss about how the robbers succeeded in breaking the side glass of the vehicle where she had kept the money without anyone, including the security personnel, noticing. She was, however, not available to speak on the incident as she was dazed. Her driver was also too shocked to speak with journalists as he had taken a little break to stretch his legs.
Explaining how the robbers carried out their raid, one of the neighbourhood watchers said: “The two jeeps just moved down here and blocked the road. I was wondering why they stopped at that place because there was no car blocking them, so I moved closer to them asking them to leave the road not knowing that they intended to steal from that car. Immediately the first jeep moved, the other one followed behind. Before I knew it, I saw the glass of the Infinity jeep had been broken, I called the driver of the car to ask him what had happened to the car.”
Poor security
A similar incident occurred last year when a gang of robbers invaded the secretariat close to the same spot where the robbers struck, burgled a Toyota Avensis car belonging to a civil servant, Azeezat Adegunwa, and carted away N1 million in the process.
“If this happened in advanced country, police would have come to cordon the vehicle and see if there is any trace evidence like fingerprint that could be used to identify the culprits,” said Musliu Adeagbo, an eye witness who identified himself as a security operative. “We lack proper crime scene management and crime investigation skill and that is why it’s easy for issues like this to happen.”