Suspected hoodlums, on Tuesday, reportedly attacked some motorists on the Londbridge and Kara ends of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ogun State.
Eyewitnesses claimed that the miscreants, who struck round 6am, robbed folks going to work, because the police described stories of abduction on the street as faux information.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the gang exploited the gridlock attributable to the continuing reconstruction of the expressway.
A banker, Ibrahim Odebunmi, stated he needed to abandon his automobile to hitch others fleeing the scene.
He stated, “I can’t actually say the precise time, however I do know it was after 6am. We had been within the site visitors across the Mikano firm space and automobiles had been shifting slowly. We simply noticed folks operating backward and shouting ‘run’. So, I postpone my automobile, picked the keys and telephones and began operating. Even the passengers in my automobile additionally joined me in operating.”
He stated motorists stopped operating when a person urged them to face the gang.
“So, we stopped operating and began shifting inward Lagos. What we heard was that they (bandits) jumped over the bridge. I heard somebody saying he noticed certainly one of them with a laptop computer,” he added.
A cleric, Gbenga Obaleye, who shared his expertise on Fb, acknowledged that he witnessed the assault across the Kara Cattle Market.
He stated when people who scampered to security returned, they found that their cash, ATM playing cards, telephones and different beneficial gadgets had gone lacking.
“This isn’t to spoil any tribe. Members in my church had been coming from camp this morning at 5.30am. The Fulani got here out from Kara the place they used to promote cows. 20 folks have been taken into the bush, that little bush,” he acknowledged.
In one other submit, he stated, “Please, watch out at Kara. Fulani have been kidnapping folks. God simply saved a household in our church now. Please, don’t begin speeding dwelling from camp. Let it’s like 7.30am.”
A cleric, who recognized himself solely as Pastor Adebayo in a voice word that went viral on Tuesday, stated the incident occurred round 6.20am.
“Proper in entrance, they had been taking folks away. I needed to escort my spouse away from the incident which I did by behaving as if I used to be a bandit abducting somebody and main the particular person into the bush. That was how we had been in a position to escape.
“By the point we got here again to choose up our automobile, they’d ransacked it and carted away our luggage, laptop computer, cellphone and others.”
“They masked up and had been with weapons and machetes.”
Adebayo claimed that he reported the matter on the Ogba Police Station in Lagos.
Nevertheless, one other eyewitness, Pastor Wilson Simire, who additionally deserted his automobile on the street, advised PUNCH Metro that no person was kidnapped.
He stated, “One man stated he misplaced his laptop computer. The slippers I used to be placing on, I needed to abandon them, and I don’t know the place they’re proper now.
“I can not determine them (attackers) however they had been younger males. They simply got here and began hitting glasses with cutlasses and shouting. Folks started to panic and ran out of their automobiles.”
He stated he had no motive to report back to the police as a result of “nothing was stolen from me.”
The Warewa Divisional Police Officer, Abdulfathi Ogunsanya, stated he was not conscious of any abduction.
The DPO, nonetheless, stated one particular person lodged a criticism about his lacking cellphone and different valuables.
“Just one particular person got here to lodge a criticism that he was attacked and that his diary, ATM card and cellphone had been taken from him,” he added.
Ogunsanya directed our reporter to the state police spokesperson, Abimbola Oyeyemi, for additional remark.
Oyeyemi, a Superintendent of Police, in a press release, described the report of the kidnapping of 20 folks as faux information.
He stated, “With the intention to dispel the depraved hearsay which is able to inflicting panic within the thoughts of the general public, the command needs to tell the general public that the stated information is nothing however faux and a lie from the pit of hell.
“There’s nothing like kidnapping of 1, talkless of 20 individuals on the Kara bridge or anyplace alongside the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
“These behind the faux information are mere mischief makers, who at all times derive pleasure from inflicting pointless panic within the thoughts of harmless members of the general public.”
The police spokesman famous that in view of the street building within the axis, the state Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, had ordered a 24-hour surveillance patrol of the realm to checkmate the actions of hoodlums who would possibly wish to make the most of the site visitors to perpetrate evils.
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, stated the motorist who claimed to have reported at Ogba “should have been redirected to Ogun State for the reason that purported incident didn’t occur in Lagos.”