Profiting from motorists’ pains: How hoodlums prey on car owners on Lagos roads

When the car started jerking halfway on the 11.8km Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos, the passengers were earnestly praying for the obvious not to happen.

Sadly, it happened. The fuel pump of the Toyota Sienna failed, and the car stopped. The driver, a public servant, who picks passengers along the road to his work in Victoria Island, was more devastated due to the ugly experiences some of his colleagues have had on the longest bridge in Nigeria.

While still on call with his mechanic, who confirmed the fuel pump failure, some unwanted fellows came from nowhere, harassing the passengers and the driver. Assessing the situation and seeing that their victims were helpless, the hoodlums starting stealing their phones, money and whatever they could find in the car.

The driver was not hurt, at least for bringing good business to them.

Also, on a choatic Monday evening, a set of hoodlums at the popular Costain Roundabout, also in Lagos, watched as some staff members, returning from work, alighted from a bus that was overheating to push it off the road, close to the under bridge. When it was confirmed that the bus cannot move again, the hoodlums demanded N100,000 for the bus to be towed and another N50,000 for the staff members to pick their bags and personal effects from the bus.

Despite the intervention of a soldier, the ‘bad’ boys insisted on their illegitimate payment and got something at the end of the day.

But the trauma is what the staff members do not wish to experience again, especially those who have been fleeced by the hoodlums on the same route.

The above scenarios are the realities many passengers face across the country, especially in Lagos, as hoodlums, in the quest for survival, take over some major roads and lay in wait for motorists whose vehicles break down and impose their levies, which must be paid if the car owners wish to leave the scene unscathe.

In most cases, the victims are fleeced by the hoodlums, who are mainly young men between 15-25 years old, and who from their looks, have been on the street for a long time.

Enitan Elijah, a victim, who was robbed twice along the Orile-Mike 2 Expressway, decried that the hoodlums are increasingly becoming more daring nowadays due to the hardship, as they boldly tell their victims that nobody can stop them from collecting their ‘national cake’, ‘tithe’, ‘Owo Tinubu’, ‘Olopa deliver’, among other names they give their illegitimate earnings.

“I was robbed in my car close to the Signal Barracks in Mile 2. I was shocked by the boldness of the small boys, who broke my door glass to gain access.

“At first, they were rough and later, they politely called me auntie and asked me to comply or they will steal from me and fondle my body. I couldn’t bear that, so I let go my two phones, a charger and handbag.

“But they beat two colleagues of mine seating at back with wheel spanner because they were resisting them. It was sad that a police van was packed few metres away and the officers were busy collecting money from people taking one-way,” Enitan recalled.

It was after her second experience on the same route, at Odun Ade bus stop, that she made up her mind to relocate to Ajah.

According to her, two hoodlums forced themselves into her car when she dropped a colleague at Odun Ade bus stop and demanded her to put on the hazard light, while they robbed her and a female colleague.

“It was smooth and within 10 minutes they were off the car with my phones, jewelry, N15,000 cash and phone from my colleague and the Coca-Cola my colleague left in the car,” she recalled, regretting not been able to fight back.

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“I had a peper spray in one of the car compartments and a small dagger, which my colleague advised me to buy, that they worked for her. But I lacked the courage to do so. If it backfires, those bad boys will kill me. Sadly again, police or Lastma appear afterwards, but I didn’t care to narrate anything. I am now in Ajah and things are more expensive here than in Festac Town, where the hoodlums forced me to leave.

But the traumatic experiences have not reoccured”.

Also recalling his experience, Obasi Omejiaku, a motorist, said, “Last November, my co-tenant and his siblings, who were returning from the burial of their mother, had a flat tyre at Alapere, along the Oworonsoki-Ojota-Ikeja route. As usual, four hoodlums, came, pretending to help. They ended up robbing them and when one of his siblings pointed at the obituary poster on the car bonnet, they shouted him down, saying they were lucky to have a mother because they don’t know who their’s were since birth.

“So, what do you expect from people with such background and nothing is being done to remedy the situation. I think, it is an emergency because there is no day innocent people are not fleeced or robbed by Lagos hoodlums,” Omejiaku noted.

The breaking of door glass to have access to motorists, especially during traffic, according to Omejiaku, is a last resort thing for the hoodlums, who probably have waited long for a car to break down with no success.

“It is easy to fleece passengers in a broken down vehicle. The hoodlums are lazy and they prefer easy catch. So, when they start breaking doors, they become suicidal and could throw people out from a moving car and possible kill them by so doing.

“The best in such situation is to give them whatever you can at that moment and save your life, which matters most,” he said.

Isa Nuhu, a police officer in Lagos, noted that there have been many cases saved by the police, just that they are under reported, especially by people who think the force is not doing enough.

According to him, officers and men of the Lagos State Police Command have been up and doing, and some have died in making sure that Lagos retains it safety record among states in Nigeria.

He also noted that victims do not report cases on time and to the appropriate authorities, as they run to social media, only to blame the police later.

On the part of Lagos State, an official that pleaded for anonymity, noted that the state has a tsakforce that has severally ejected the hoodlums out of the under bridges, canals and their other hideouts and that it is a continuous exercise.

He disclosed that many of the hoodlums have been arrested and sent to correctional facilities in Lagos, only to return to the under bridge after their release.

Some, according to him, were registered free for some vocational training, which they abandoned.

So, the difficulty in tracing their origin, lack of interest in learn a trade or doing something positive, and too many lonely places on the highway, have been challenges, as the law does not prescribe capital punishment for hoodlums.

On the part of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and VIO, many motorists regret that the government agencies hardly come to the rescue, when needed and when they come, they compound the issue than helping the trapped motorists.

“If the police, LASTMA and FRSC are patrolling the highways regularly, they will sacre away the hoodlums and save many of such situations.

The government should make regular patrol a critical part of their daily job to ensure safety of innocent people,” Enitan concluded.

But a LASTMA officer insisted that as long as they are not armed, it would be difficult to challenge hoodlums operating on highways, who are ready to kill for N1000.