There
was pandemonium on Wednesday again at the Warewa long bridge on the
Lagos-Ibadan Expressway as motorists abandoned their vehicles after robbers
attacked them in a gridlock.
A
motorist said around 8.30pm , many people abandoned their vehicles and fled
into the bush.
He
said, “There is confusion on the bridge. Many of us are outside our cars. We
suddenly heard that the robbers had attacked again and people started fleeing
their vehicles.
Some of the hoodlums were not armed with guns. We decided to
get stones with which we would attack them. We are standing outside now, just
in case of any attack.”
Another
motorist, a woman identified only as Adebola, said the contractor handling the
rehabilitation should remove the dividers to ease the traffic so that robbers
would not take advantage of the gridlock to attack commuters.
She
said, “The contractor should remove the dividers and ease the traffic. Those
robbers are using the opportunity of the traffic to unleash mayhem on
motorists. It should not be so.
“The
hardship these dividers cause alone is enough reason to remove them. If there
will be reconstruction at that end, it should be in the daytime. As soon as
night comes, the contractor should not allow traffic to build up because the
robbers take advantage of that.”
A
police source attached to the Warewa Police Division, however, said that the
long bridge was “flooded with policemen,” adding that there was no robbery on
the bridge.
He
explained that the traffic on the road was caused by vehicles which broke down
along the bridge.
He
said, “The police have been patrolling that long bridge. There is no robbery.
The problem is that many residents of Arepo and Warewa, who have nowhere to
make a U-turn, are forced to join the traffic on the long bridge and that
increases the number of vehicles on the bridge.”
A
tricycle rider, Kola Jaiyeola, said a businessman was robbed of N3m and other
valuables on Sunday.
He
said, “The man was coming from Abuja when he was trapped in the traffic on
Monday. He narrated how the robbers beat him up when he initially declined to
part with his valuables. They stabbed him in the back and his shirt was torn.
Eventually, he said the robbers collected N3m, two phones and a wristwatch from
him. I was the one who gave him a lift to Ikeja.
“He
said he had come for a business in Lagos. He was bleeding.”
The
Ogun State acting Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, did not
pick his calls as of press time.
He
also had yet to reply to a text message sent to his phone.
Tags
Society