Ojo Peter, Ibadan
Residents of Sasa area in Ibadan, Oyo state, have expressed fear and dissatisfaction over the security situation in their vicinity.Speaking to Orient Daily on Sunday, one of the residents of the UI Alumni Post Graduate Hall said that the security situation in the Ajibode/Sasa area just before the UI Distance Learning Center (DLC) had deteriorated a lot as there had been motorcycle robberies on a weekly basis.The resident revealed there had been incessant robberies of motorcycles in the area, with three of such robberies recorded last week and another three this week, the latest of these happening just last night.Narrating the incidents, the witness said, “for more than a month now, we’ve been hearing robbery alerts every week and, since last week, these shouts have become more frequent than before.”He went on “last week three bike men lost their bikes to robbers and this week three more lost their bikes between Monday and Saturday and the latest happened yesternight.“I was sitting outside the hall of residence yesterday and I saw a bike man ride down to stop in front of the hall and the passenger came down and pretended to look for money and within a twinkle of an eye, another bike drove towards them and a gun was pointed at the other bike man. He was asked to come down and his bike was taken from him. The fake passenger mounted the bike and moved with it as the owner of the bike was asked to run in the opposite direction”.He further said that efforts to alert security agents have proved abortive as the robberies happen real fast and within two minutes adding that the attack is orchestrated and completed without any mistake.Confirming these incidents, the Chief Security Officer of the UI Alumni Post Graduate Hall said that these robberies are constantly happening in front of the hall as that is the only residential building between the UI back gate and the Distance Learning Centre. He noted that the quietness makes it easy to rob without being caught.He, added that these incidents have made life increasingly difficult for the students residing in the hall as they can’t get means of getting to the area after 7 pm as these robberies happen around 7 to 9 pm every two to three days.“I have interacted with one of the victims and I discovered that these fake passengers will take the motorcyclists from a place as far as Mokola Roundabout to the area before robbing them in front of the residence hall.
While expressing fear that these robberies might soon get to the hall of residence and other residents if not curbed soon enough, the residents called on the state government and the security agents in the state to step in before a life is lost during one of these robberies.
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