Armed robbers invade Unity Estate
Chase SARS to Area ‘M’ Command as the policemen run
The last Police van left behind after the policemen fled from the robbers. The gunmen deflated the four tyres with gunshots. Also see the bullet holes on the door. |
While the first invasion resulted in death
casualty of Chief Mathias Agbon-Ifon, which made the residents to believe it
was assassination mission, going by the mode of attack, the residents believed the
recent invasion was an armed robbery operation intended on the home of of one
Alhaji Taofeek Shodiya (a.k.a Tasho).
The electric fence cable & the CCTV camera the gunmen first destroyed after taking position. |
Giving accounts of how the gunmen beat the
water-tight security barrier of the Estate, the head of Odua Peoples Congress
(OPC) vigilante security guards for the Estate simply identified as Taye said
after the armed robbers first deceptively horn as a night-crawler residents of
the Estate without success, they opened fire on the Iron Gate but less furiously
to much they opened to air; “one of the gunmen scaled the high fence to break
the gate lock from behind”.
Asked why the security did not open fire on
this first man, another member of the security guard reminded The Colloquium
Tabloid correspondent that besides they were not authorised to carry gun,
safety tips in security job of night guard dictated that they should first come
to full breast of the strength of the gunmen.
This guard whose name was given as Biola
explained further in Yoruba language what he saw from a vantage dark corner
that camouflaged him from easy detection by the armed robbers.
The window and burglary of the security post the gunmen destroyed to eventually gain entry into the compound |
Some of the residents of the Estate gathered to discuss the incidents |
people trooping into the Estate to witness the after robbery ruins |
“You see what I mean that it was only good
for us to be cautious at shooting gun. If we had fired immediately as people
have been asking, that is how we would have killed an innocent father of some
children”, the guard explained.
Accounts of the actual scene of the robbery
in the Alhaji Taofik’s house, as given by an acquaintance of the residence who
pleaded to anonymity confirmed that the robbers shot a female resident of the
house they held hostage in the leg when she could not provide the key to the
inner room of Alhaji.
Telling his experience, the male resident
who was obviously still in shock described the whole incidents as “a
manifestation of Allah’s mercy on the entire households” for the gang’s leader
to rescind the decision to kill people for taking them through the ordeal of
having to force their way into the house.
“I heard the leader specifically giving
instruction that they should not kill anybody. Even when they first came in,
one of Alhaji’s sons innocently woke up from sleep and walked into the already
furious gang. The leader just said said: ‘pele,
o ti sun? pele, lo sun pada’; meaning sorry, you’ve slept? Sorry, go back
to sleep”.
The gunmen were said to gain entry into the
house through the small window of the security post. Having taken positions and
occupied the street, they made straight for their target house; cut off
electric bar of the fence; fired gun shots to destroy the CCTV camera; then
tried several shots on the iron gate, which repelled the bullets as all other
doors to the rooms in the house did.
The gunmen eventually gained entry into the
inner house of the compound through a door not locked by a member of the house.
It was the woman they met in that part of the house that was eventually held
hostage to lead them to Alhaji’s room, according to full story of the
incidents. She was eventually shot in the leg.
The dare-devil robbers operated undisturbed
with impunity; parading all the adjoining streets to the house of their victim
with consistent gun shots into the air.
The Police responded swiftly to the
distress call but could not stop the robbers who were said to parade high caliber
machineguns with lots of expendable rounds of ammunitions. They eventually fled
the scene when the gunmen turned the heat on them.
Mr. Abiola standing by his car as the crowd got lighter |
Sympathisers besieged Abiola to hear his tail. See right pix too |
Seeing the superior firepower of the
robbers’ arsenal, the policemen fled; leaving behind one of their vehicles.The
gunmen did not relent at pursuing them. They demobilised the Patrol van left
behind by deflating the four tyres with gun shots.
Mr. Abiola's Camry in the booth of which he was locked and carried about |
He left for the Idimu Police Station
immediately after the robbers left him in the near-naked state. He returned back to
the Estate in the morning with Policemen to get his snatched Camry car to the
Station. He sustained a head injury from a hit of the gun booth by the gang. He
also had a left blushed eye to indicate the brutal assaults he received from
the gunmen.
The blushed right eye Mr. Abiola sustained from the robbery incidents |
In that incident, they killed the Regional
Head of the Ogboni Confraternity Worldwide, Captain Mathias Agbon-Ifon in the
operation that looked much like assassination; as they killed their target
without taking anything from the house.