Armed Robbers Attack Oyo Community, Injure Residents

Armed Robbers Attack Oyo Community, Injure Residents

Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan

No fewer than 20 dare-devil robbers yesterday morning invaded Jamade street, Opposite Goshen land, a sub-community of Apete in Ido Local Government Area of Oyo State, inflicting various cuts with dangerous weapons on about six persons and carted away valuable properties.

THISDAY learnt that the robbers arrived in the area around 1a.m. and robbed no fewer than ten houses, including the House of the Deputy Photo Editor of the Guardian Newspaper, Mr. Najeem Raheem, whose son, Faruk, as a result of the iron rod used on him by the criminals when he resisted them, fainted.

The father, Raheem, had escaped by the whiskers from the attackers, but his wife was not lucky as she was attacked with machete on her hand by the criminals.

It was gathered that a student hostel was also attacked in the area where no fewer than four students sustained machete cuts with others inflicted with other varying degrees of injuries.

While the police were called severally according to the residents, they reportedly did not get to the location until after more than one hour even though the distance between the Divisional Police Station in Apete to the crime scene should not take more than five minutes around that time.

Sources said the house of an Islamic cleric, who rare cows in the neighborhood, Alhaji Adekunle; the house of a Lead City lecturer and that of another staff of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), were among those robbed.

Some of the victims said the criminals, mostly youths, distributed themselves to the houses, stealing laptops, phones and cash as well as destroying other valuables.

The physically disturbed residents stated that the entire Apete, and particularly Yidi-Arola and Ariyibi communities, have been under attacks by armed robbers since the partial lockdown of Oyo State due to coronavirus pandemic, calling for security deployment to the area.

A resident of the community who pleaded anonymity said: “The police who eventually came were even blaming the residents, asking them where they got the phones that were stolen by the thieves. This is the least we expected from the police who said they are our friends. In fact some people called 615 released by the state government and other numbers, but we didn’t get response.”

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