On my way home one day, after crossing over to the mainland section of Lagos, I received a tap on my back. A tiny voice followed, sounding like a programmed message asking me to put my phone in my pocket. Looking back at the advisor radiantly, who calmly stared at me, he said further that touts were always snatching phones from people through the window. I put my phone down, even as some voices echoed “the youths of these days can’t do without pressing telephones, another said that’s how my son presses his phone, and I wonder how he’s still doing well academically”. Conversations started and some of the people recounted stories of situations of thefts, which they experienced personally.
A man narrated his own experience of theft in Lagos to a national newspaper. He was at the popular Oshodi road in Lagos, an area that basically connects to all other regions in Lagos. He was waiting to board a bus to Ikorodu. At the time to enter the bus, there was a rush, as it is always a hassle boarding vehicles if you don’t want to sleep on the road due to traffic. The young man finally secured a seat and sat comfortably, he wasn’t hearing music from the earpiece at that time and thought he had exhausted the playlist, he decided to change the playlist to a new one, and realised his phone was not in his pocket anymore. It must have been stolen at one point while trying to get into the vehicle.
Shortly after a few arguments, some passengers alighted at their bus stops. The other passengers continued until we got to the famous Mile 12 Bus Stop. A new set of passengers joined us. An elderly person, maybe older than I am by almost a decade who sat close to a window opened her smart phone device, and started interacting with it. Someone notified her about the consequence of openly using a bright screen phone such as the one she was holding.
Mile 12 has since become a home for thugs and swift robbery. Aside being the home for any kind of groceries in Nigeria, it houses quite a huge number of people, and the roads are always busy because of the market, causing a huge level of traffic and road block for commuters and pedestrians. You will have to be extra careful so as not to get your day ruined by pickpockets and robbers. The pickpockets thrive as a result of the crowded area, they are able to follow and target a particular person, join them in a bus, and sometimes interact with them until they are distracted enough for the thieves to strike. They move by the windows of buses and snatch smartphones and devices from commuters. This explains why some commuters nowadays would not pick up calls. They will rather use earphones in order not to show off their smartphones especially when these phones are highly priced.
This act of robbery thrives in areas that experience regular traffic which is common on some roads in Lagos State, particularly moving from Ketu Bus Stop to Mile 12 onwards to Ikorodu will definitely have various instances where you are held up in traffic.This is exactly what creates the avenue for these robbers and smartphone snatchers. Also, from the stories these people narrated, the robbers are usually fast, very swift in their action and they become invisible once the deed is done.
We got to this point and behold it was touts (people we call area boys) controlling the movement of vehicles. About five able bodied youth at the junction at about 7pm, were controlling the traffic. That is definitely the danger zone everyone has been experiencing phone theft and snatching of items. Yes, aside snatching, they also extort along these roads; Ikorodu road (Fadeyi to Ikorodu).
A passenger disembarked at one of the bus-stops along the famous Ikorodu road, the driver dropped him a bit farther after the bus-stop but he complained. The driver had to explain to him that those robbers usually confront people at night at these bus-stops, they specifically go to the BRT bus-stops, and attack passengers who alight, abscond with smart phones and laptops of their victims. The passenger thanked the driver and left. As he continued with his journey, he was more careful about the dangers lurking around. Shortly afterwards, he saw two young men walking towards him, feeling insecure, he started running. The young men dashed after him and it was that development that confirmed they were the robbers, about whom he had just been warned. He kept on running and crossed the highway to the other side where a fast-moving bike almost hit him. The rider slapped him for almost causing an accident, by this time the robbers stopped chasing him. He jumped in a moving bus until he got to a further destination. The thefts happening on the roads of Lagos are appalling.
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