Gunmen Attack Vehicles On Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Cart Away Valuables

Again, some suspected hoodlums yesterday attacked commuters on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, robbing them of their valuables.

The incident which occurred around 6: 40 am on the Long Bridge, before Kara Market, inward Lagos, forced some commuters to abandon their vehicles and scamper for safety.

A hawker who simply identified himself as Emeka who witnessed the incident said he just got to OPIC area when he noticed that people were abandoning their vehicles on the bridge and scampering for safety.

He said the vehicle he boarded from Berger was on the other side of the bridge inward Ogun State when he saw what was happening on the bridge and they also escaped for their lives.

“It was the gunshots from the armed robbers that forced my bus to stop midway in the journey to avoid being hit by stray bullets from the suspects.

Few minutes after they had gone, it was then everyone of us were able to come out from where we hid.

“The robbery on the long bridge is getting out of hand. The last operation was terrible. These armed robbers came with bikes, because it was through the bikes that they were able to escape from the gridlock on the bridge. I don’t know if anybody was shot by the robbers, all I knew was that they collected alot of phones and other valuables.”

Our correspondent gathered that it was after the armed robbers had gone that policemen and So Safe Squad arrived the scene and they started chasing hawkers from the bridge, accusing them of being the ones robbing on the bridge. A hawker who didn’t want his name in print said it was poverty that forced majority of them to be hawking on the bridge, denying that he knows anything about robbery on the bridge.

The policemen and So Safe Squad know those who are robbing on the bridge, they should go after them instead of coming after us. “Those who are coming to rob on the bridge are using the gridlock opportunity to attack drivers, when these present armed robbers came, we were not yet on the bridge, then how come they are attributing the attack to us. We have young and old men and women who are hawking on the bridge. “Before now, there had been robbery on the bridge. This is not the first robbery? I was told that those who came to rob in the early hours of today were fully armed, then how come we the hawkers can afford such guns.

It is not that I’m defending the hawkers, that we don’t have bad ones among us, but I believe those who are coming to rob on the bridge are coming from outside to attack people on the bridge and cart away their valuables.”