Dear Sergeant Adebisi of Ajiwe Ajah Police Station, please do your job

Dear Sergeant Adebisi,

I am writing to you to appeal to your good nature, your sense of duty, and your commitment as a police officer to public service to rise to the challenge of doing your job.

On the night of the 23^rd of May 2017, my sister and brother-in-law were burgled, or to use an Americanism, they were burglarized by armed robbers. My brother-in-law in the encounter received head wounds that needed immediate hospital treatment and amongst the things stolen were electronic goods, phones and wallets containing bank cards. I reference the crime in the link below:

Appeal: My sister and her husband are being terrorised by an armed robber gang

This would have been the standard-issue armed robbery in Nigeria that rarely takes up police resources, but we have something to work on here. In the morning of the 24^th of May 2017, between 5:57 AM and 7:47 AM, 5 money transactions were made from my brother-in-law’s account with the Guaranty Trust Bank (GT Bank) to a recipient account with the Fidelity Bank; that recipient account belonged to Izuka Chukwuemeka Onyema.

This is where your duty as a policeman begins to matter to matter to Nigerians along with the training you received and the experience that has elevated you to the rank of sergeant with the opportunity for more laurels.

• Who is Izuka Chukwuemeka Onyema?
• How did Izuka Chukwuemeka Onyema’s account come to be the recipient of unauthorised fund transfers a few hours after an armed robbery?
• Could Izuka Chukwuemeka Onyema be in cahoots with the armed robbers or is he under duress to have his account used for laundering proceeds of crime?
• Why is Izuka Chukwuemeka Onyema not being apprehended for questioning, maybe interrogation and possibly held for conspiracy in committing an armed robbery?
• Izuka Chukwuemeka Onyema is the only link to the armed robbers and at the very least should be made to return the sums of money transferred to his account back to my brother-in-law’s account.
• Izuka Chukwuemeka Onyema should be eliminated from being a person of interest with regards to the armed robbery, but that requires he be questioned and the stolen money returned at the very least.

As you can see, this is all police work, not what you or anyone would expect civilians to do. This matter is complicated by the fact that my sister after much agitation was able to get GT Bank to correspond with Fidelity Bank, the result being Izuka Chukwuemeka Onyema’s account was restricted, but the funds have not yet been transferred back to my brother-in-law’s account.

When Izuka Chukwuemeka Onyema’s account was restricted, the armed robbers returned to terrorise my sister, my brother-in-law and their neighbours. We were lucky no one came to any harm because as the armed robbers were trying to gain access to their building, everyone was alerted and so my people escaped harm.

Not only have my people (my sister and brother-in-law) lost things, he was wounded and had to be operated on twice, they have their money stolen and locked away in an account owing to inertia on your part and that of the banks and they have been so terrified of reprisal attacks from the armed robbers that they have been rendered homeless, just 8 months into their marriage.

I have it on good authority that you had to be persuaded by more senior officers to be interested in investigating this crime, yet for one reason or another 5 weeks after the armed robbery, we are nowhere near any resolution, in apprehending the link person Izuka Chukwuemeka Onyema, in returning the stolen money or even retrieving the stolen goods.

The devastating impact on the lives of my sister, my brother-in-law and their neighbours is one that every reasonable person would expect that you are the senior police officer in their locality to be concerned about, but you have been scolding them for seeking justice and going above your head to encourage you to do your job. It is an unfortunate reading of events that are within your power to remediate.

I would think you want an easy life and this looks like an easy crime to resolve if you can rise to that challenge.

So, Sergeant Adebisi of Nigeria Police Force Office in Area A, Ajiwe Ajah Road, Lekki Expressway, I appeal to you once again, please for the sake of your reputation and the reputation of the Nigeria Police Force, get engaged, get involved and help resolve this matter. You have the details, you have the evidence of a crime having been committed, perish the thought that an inducement is required to do your job from the victims of crimes or worse still that anyone in your office is in cahoots with Izuka Chukwuemeka Onyema or the armed robbers.

Obviously, there is an alternative, if you are not interested in being a policeman, you can offer your resignation and allow others with a bit more enthusiasm in police work and bringing a sense of professionalism to the police force to take your place. Any well-meaning Nigerian would applaud the solving of crimes, most especially ones where the evidence is handed to the police on a plate.

Sergeant Adebisi, the ball is in your court.

Thank you for your kind consideration of my appeal and I look forward to the opportunity to celebrate your work as a policeman.

Yours sincerely,

Akin Akintayo (Brother and brother-in-law of the victims of crime in your area of influence.)

Appeal: My sister and her husband are being terrorised by an armed robber gang

My people robbed

On the night of the 23^rd of May 2017, my sister and brother-in-law were brutally attacked at home by armed robbers, he was inflicted with head injuries and the bandits made away with their mobile phones, her laptop which contained her PhD programme activities, her glasses, their bank cards and identity cards.

The thieves or an accomplice of theirs then raided my brother-in-law’s bank account and the money was transferred to a beneficiary account number (6018594851) with Fidelity Bank belonging to a Izuka Chukwuemeka Onyema, this apparently happened between 5:57 AM and 7:47 AM on the 24^th of May 2017.

They are terrorising them

My sister and brother-in-law on finding that moneys had been transferred out the account, informed their bank and a block was placed on the account of the beneficiary. Since then, the robbers returned and my family was saved because they were sighted at the point of breaking in again, but they are terrorising my family and that is just unacceptable.

Izuka Chukwuemeka Onyema needs to be picked up and interrogated to reveal who his actors and accomplices are to stop terrorising my sister and my brother-in-law. They are living in constant fear away from home and other places where their identities might compromise them, terrorised by criminals who have been thwarted in their atrocious enterprise.

Stop this lawlessness

This is lawlessness that cannot be allowed to continue any longer and I appeal to anyone who can initiate, expedite and help apprehend these people to save not just my sister and brother-in-law, but anyone else from being terrorised by this brigandage of menace.

The key person is Izuka Chukwuemeka Onyema, his account number 6018594851 with Fidelity Bank should have other pertinent details as his photograph and address where he can either be picked up or the investigation that start to build a picture of his contacts towards stopping this criminality once and for all.

Obviously, in nabbing this man, it is also possible that lots of stolen property can be retrieved and hopefully returned to their rightful owners.

Help me nab them

Now, this touches me more because, my sister and brother-in-law are newlyweds, who just started a new home, it is only over 7 months ago that we lost our baby sister. My brother-in-law is recovering, but they both need to be back safe in their home without being fearful of armed robbery reprisals.

My appeal is to the good offices of the law and process to get these criminals off the streets and allow the citizenry live their lives in peace and happiness.

As with most things Nigerian, we are left to do our own do-it-yourself detective footwork and investigations, the police have been redolent and nonchalant even with the evidence we already have to hand. The only alternative left is to drive a social media campaign in the hope that a resolution is possible. It is my hope that you will be engaged, interested and help bring these criminals to justice. Thank you.

Nigeria: Do Everything to Restore the Dignity of these Girls

It’s becoming the norm

The story of the robbery and rape of young secondary school girls on a journey from Enugu to Lagos in Nigeria had me seriously upset that when I was asked to comment on the need for justice I could only lament the circumstances that allowed for such heinous crimes to take place without prospect of punishment or justice.

I am almost becoming inured to tales of apparently marauding; sex-starved savages whose sighting of damsels automatically sets in motion the impunity and ferocity of rape without consequence, in our universities or now on our roads and any other place when women might find themselves vulnerable to the uncontrolled lusts of evil men.

There are too many issues related to this matter that needs addressing but I will concentrate on more general points with the view to preventing the recurrence of such tragedies.

Excuses and many

Ekene Dili Chukwu Transport Company Limited, has been in this business for the better part of four decades or more, I cannot understand how having been chartered by a school to convey vulnerable girls they allowed for this journey to commence without adequate support that the poor girls were left exposed and open to prey in the middle of nowhere at almost midnight.

Whilst, I read that the transport company suggests that they were under duress [Vanguard Nigeria] to deliver the kids that night, there are many other aspects to the tale that show that the company, its staff and arrangements are lackadaisical, irresponsible and without due preparation and concern.

They had completed more than 80% of the journey before the bus broke down in another version of the saga [Punch Nigeria] which has one question the road-worthiness of a bus that could not complete a journey of less than 600 kilometres and I hope that features in charges of neglect, recklessness and lack of care and attention to minors that should be preferred against the company, first exacted in the arrest of the driver of the bus.

Convoys are a solution

Considering the security situation of Nigeria and the notoriety of highwaymen on those roads, I am surprised that a company with that length of experience had not adopted the use of mass convoys in travelling between the East and West of Nigeria.

It would have been an easy arrangement to have a convoy of probably 10 buses leave at set times of the day, all in radio contact with each other with contingency. By which I mean, if any of the buses ran into difficulty, the others can be quickly alerted and vulnerable passengers immediately taken to safety.

The other usefulness of convoys means that scale can allow for escorts either by licensed security agents or the police, ensuring that passengers do not fall easy prey to opportunistic attacks.

Camping stops at dusk

I was also told these buses rarely travel at night and whilst this might have been an exception due to all sorts of extenuating circumstances, it is not beyond Ekene Dili Chukwu Transport Company Limited to have setup camping stops to accommodate passengers, especially vulnerable ones as dusk sets in, with information of the progress of the journey relayed to the destination to allay the fears of parents, guardians and relations.

In my view, none of this is rocket science, there is nothing unique about convoys and Nigeria presents the conditions, situation and setting for using convoys, security and camping stop motels to avoid the daring and reckless exposure of vulnerable passengers to menace.

Processing rape

One of the victims of this sad tale offered in rather graphic detail information of how she avoided getting raped as the police vehemently deny that any of the girls were sexually harassed apart from being robbed.

I can well understand that societal stigma of rape but the girls are twice abused if they are not provided psychological and counselling support after their trauma as parents hope the passage of time might heal the scars.

We need to realise that there are benefits to therapy and need to begin to avail ourselves of that professional service. Denial is no medicine for trauma, just as we need to be better educated about the need for extended support systems that do not castigate, judge or condemn victims for situations they could not have avoided.

Justice must matter

Basically, nobody is helped by obfuscating the truth because it means the criminals will not be adequately charged for their crimes and the girls will hardly have obtained the required and needed justice that appears to elude many rape victims in Nigeria.

Difficult as the subject of rape might seem, it needs to be addressed without scruples and dealt with sympathetically on the part of the victim and without mercy on the part of proven rapists and accomplices who could have prevented the situation but tolerated and condoned it.

The least that can be done to restore the honour and dignity of these girls is to prosecute their assailants to the fullest extent of the law whilst ensuring that Ekene Dili Chukwu Transport Company Limited is no way exculpated for allowing such vulnerable passengers to fall prey to such unforgivably atrocious circumstances.

Sources

LUXURY BUS ATTACK: Police arrest robbery, rape suspects, driver | Vanguard Nigeria

Luxury bus robbery: Police arrest five suspects — The Punch - Nigeria's Most Widely Read Newspaper

Three Days after, Police Arrest 5 Bus Rape Suspects, Articles | THISDAY LIVE

Welcome to Linda Ikeji's Blog: Robbers attack luxury bus, rape schoolgirls

Nigeria: A Robbery ReTweeted and Reported

A robbery ReTweeted

I was engaged on one of my usual late night Twitter conversations when a ReTweet appeared announcing a robbery taking place at a Lagos suburb address, it appeared desperate – in fact, any robbery in Lagos is desperately a matter of life and death.

As I experienced some 23 years ago, we were at the mercy of callous and ruthless armed men who went about in groups of 10 or more and had no compunction about shooting any of their victims, if it so caught their fancy.

One could well imagine either the victim sending the Tweet or someone witnessing the event from somewhere else; in either case, it would appear the person could not call the police.

We conversed about getting the phone numbers to the police stations and opined about the non-availability of toll-free easy-to-remember numbers; in the end we obtained a number of 11-digit phone numbers shared on Twitter and eventually some easy-to-remember toll-free numbers 767 & 999 that could be called within Lagos that were found to be working.

Call from anywhere

Meanwhile, one of my Twitter conversants called the police and reported the incident, they at first did not know the address but after a clearer description of the location they said they will “detail” (Nigerianese for instruct) to attend to the situation.

This was thanks to a Google search for the address and the indication of some landmarks. It goes without saying that our Nigerian cities need to have postcode identification amongst other signifiers to help agencies locate places easily.

Living in the Netherlands, I first felt I would not be taken seriously if I called but I eventually did call the Lagos Police Emergency Number which was 002347055462708.

Acting on it already

Someone at the station picked up the phone and I introduced myself as a caller from Holland, which surprised them as I gave them the information that there was a robbery reported on the Internet that needed attending to.

I was passed on to another officer who first asked if I had called earlier, I hadn’t; but I was informed, it transpired they had already been called (this, I think would be the call they received earlier), they now knew where the problem was and he told me the police official in charge of that location had been detailed to visit the address with a troop of police officers.

They seemed to be confident of what they were doing and I thanked them for seeing to the situation.

One can only hope that despite the trauma of the victims of the robbery the robbers do get caught and the victims are OK after their ordeal.

Usefulness of social media

For those who have pooh-poohed the usefulness of Twitter for anything especially in Nigeria, I would hope that this inspires people of the possibilities; starting with the presence of mind to Tweet an event through to the interest of others to act on the information received with the hope that something can be done.

In this case, I believe the police received at least two phone calls about an event and if anything, they would have been geared up to deal with the situation, promptly and with dispatch.

With the elections coming up in April 2011, every social media tool along with mobile phones should be employed in ensuring we have free, fair, transparent and honest elections – it will only happen if we all get involved, the people on the ground reporting and others disseminating and sharing the detail with others who can act on the situation or crisis.

With regards to the elections you need to go to ReVoDa | How it works we have the tools, it is time to use them to our best advantage especially in sticky situations.

Nigeria: Lawmakers deliberate on the completely absurd

Originally written for NigeriansTalk.org as Lawmakers deliberate on the completely absurd.

No respect for the lawmaker

Sometimes I wonder why deliberations between lawmakers never get accorded any recognition of sophistication, erudition or plain sense.

It somehow never even gets to the level of a marketplace brawl in the heat of the day, the brutish entertainment of professional wrestling seems to have more decorum and order in its proceedings and eventual result – it is no wonder people might better watch a wrestling match than politicians politicking and preening themselves in self-absorbed discourse under the pretense of being representatives of some constituency.

That is the worrisome aspect of this line of thought, the fact that lawmakers are not seen in any good light and they then have the power to enact laws and legislation that affects our lives and livelihoods, it goes without saying that we need a better class of person first then better levels of deliberation.

A topic ready for debate

I have been reading comments to a news story in the good fatherland of Nigeria where lawmakers have deliberated the absurd, it is incredible that we end up with such representatives; these people do seriously believe they have raised serious concerns and their deliberations rather than being ridiculous are legitimate discourse.

The nEXt online newspaper carried and article with the headline Lawmakers ask robbers to declare temporary ceasefire [1], a headline like that should garner enough curiosity and interest, it did mine.

Nigeria is currently hosting the Under-17 Football World Cup, a competition that was almost pulled last year because the government could not see its obligation to follow through a commitment to host, the self-same government that is seeking a permanent seat on the UN Security Council – such is the myopia that plagues our leadership.

Appealing to the patriotism of bandits

Ogun State has one of the venues, so the lawmakers met up and first lamented that a particular location – Isheri Bridge on the border of Lagos and Ogun States had become a den of bandits.

Anyone would think once a hotspot for crime has been identified, you empower, equip and instruct the law enforcement agencies to sort it out and have a report at some future date as to how it was done and what else they need to be more effective at crime-fighting.

These politicians had a different line of thinking that could only be expressed verbatim, “there is a need for the men of the underworld to suspend their operations in the interim, because of the on-going mundial.”

Yes, our lawmakers were asking armed robbers to have a ceasefire, they should suspend their criminal activities to bolster and participate in the window dressing rebranding of Nigeria as a peaceful, crimeless and safe country.

Indeed, it is good to appeal to everyone’s sense of patriotism at a time like this, but this takes the absurd to another level crass stupidity, you cannot imagine anything worse can come after that appeal.

At the mercy of criminals

Well, it got worse, because the lawmaker went on to say, “Then they can resume thereafter, because there is nowhere in the world where robbers and robberies could be stopped from their work.”

One comment read, if this were a drama sketch, it would be unbelievable, the lines would be struck out, but this really happened, those words were spoken by an elected representative that had willfully suspended every iota of intellect.

In one sentence, they threw in the towel to crime, left us at the mercy of criminals and in that defeatist thinking equated robbery to some sort of gainful pursuit or employment.

Robbers and robberies do get stopped and many do end up being nabbed by the long arm of the law if law enforcement is given the tools, responsibility and confidence to do their job. However, this lawmaker and the chamber in which his remarks received shameless hearing and debate have undermined ever establishment and institution that might at one time have been able to combat this menace with all vigour and win.

So feeble, so delusional

To rub salt in insult into injury, he concluded his plea for support with, “If foreigners witness the robbers' attacks at this point, it would send a bad signal to other nations.” In my view, nothing could be worse than having this debate where the lawmakers have put us at the mercy and goodwill of men of the underworld and given the police no particular impetus to make order, safety and security prevail.

Then the Speaker of the House feebly suggested, “I want to use the opportunity to call on the police to intensify efforts in checkmating criminals. They should please not relent in the efforts.” How the police are expected to win the war on crime where the chess analogy leaves them so powerless as pawns and the armed robbers are all elevated to queens escapes me.

Much more hot air of words but no backbone or force of parliament to arrest an untenable situation; all this constituted a debate in a house of assembly.

Scanning through the comments left, it is clear that the Nigerian populace with an opinion are less than impressed by this and attribute this to the rot that has made politics an unpalatable mix of the nastiest people holding the reigns of power but completely clueless as to what being in power represents.

It is no wonder that they cannot even get a local government official to appear before them.

The danger is that this kind of deliberation is probably not an exception, but the norm in many other state assemblies, providing for chaos, drift and misgovernment – Nigerians need to talk about this kind of representation and deliberation, it should never become commonplace.

Source

[1] 234Next.com | Lawmakers ask robbers to declare temporary ceasefire

With guns are you parted from your goods

Gun shots and security

I just read that my blogging friend, the author of Naijablog was almost in a precarious situation of witnessing an armed robbery in Abuja, Nigeria. Fortunately, he only heard gun-shots and then the screeching of tires as they made away.

As I empathise, I relate my own experience with armed robbers in our home some 18 years ago.

Here goes …

I have my own skirmishes in Europe, but that for one, vindicates my having left Nigeria and not having returned; not for a day for a long time.

I am really sorry about that episode and I truly can empathise.

When I was in Lagos, I lived in ShaSha with nothing between our house and the wall of the International Airport.

The traffic on the runway revealed the political pulse of the country; we could say when a coup was in the offing by the type of traffic coming in.

Expecting armed visitors

Anyway, one week in 1988, armed robbers had selected our neighbourhood for operations having done the novel thing of drilling a hole through walls to gain access to property not too far away. That left the neighbourhood in a palpable sense of defencelessness.

That night, we more or less knew it was our turn; they had already gained access to the house and entered the building downstairs before asking my aunt - Madam to open the door.

We did, and we were escorted upstairs where we were made to lie down in the living room as they ransacked on the whole house and got ready to cart away everything of value but our lives.

Then sergeant asked the colonel to shoot one of us; reason prevailed, the colonel said we had co-operated so should come to no harm.

It was not till about 2 hours after that happened that we realised as we wandered between shock and realism what we had just been through.

We vacated the house for 2 weeks.

Bullet tennis with staves as racquets

The village community decided we should have a party of vigilantes go out every night to give the neighbourhood a sense of security.

I sniggered; we were to walk away around in groups of 8 or so with sticks and staves to upset a determined rampage of armed rogues.

It appeared we were preparing for a tennis match with bullets as balls only that we were not offering the first service.

Security trumps economic progress

So, when my father pontificated then about the possibility of ending up in a racist society by being in Europe, I did not mince my words in reply as to the fact that security of life and well-being is of greater importance going from my experience.

In fact, that is my major gripe about Nigeria and it makes the other news piece about being taken off the International Financial Action Task Force (FATF) blacklist hardly worthy of mention.

Without security of life and property what is the point of being off a blacklist, living in fortresses that rival Fort Knox and not being able to get around for the fear of car-jacking?

On the verge of greatness

Sometimes, viewing it from here, it looks like it is a lottery to win safety over the lack of it. It is not necessarily the norm but events like this colour ones view of a country that is on the verge of greatness; if only we could see what kind it is.