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Nigerians,\nwho have embraced Point of Sales (POS) as business and a means of survival, are\nnow living in fear as robbers have turned attention on them.
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\nOperators\nat Mowe in Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State and those in Ayobo\narea of Lagos State, who have already experienced the venoms of these robbers,\nare still recounting their ordeal in the hands of the men of the underworld.
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\nAt Mowe\ncommunity in Ogun State, residents were alleged to have got used to their homes\nand shops being burgled. They also accepted that nothing could be done by\nsecurity agents in the state about incessant cases of motorcycles snatching,\nbut presently, they are visibly perturbed following the latest attacks on POS\noperators.
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\nThe\ndaredevil robbers, on most nights, will attack the homes of operators and\ndispossessed the victims of all their money, used in transacting the business.\nThey also collect other valuables.
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\nOne of\ntheir victims at Mowe, who gave her name simply as Alhaja Bola, explained that\nshe and her husband were sleeping with their children when the robbers scaled\nthe fence of their building and gained entry into the compound. That was about\nmidnight.
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\nShe said:\n\u201cWhen they came in, none of us knew they were already inside the sitting room.\nThey started shouting, \u2018where is the money? Where is the money?\u2019 When I heard\nthe strange voices, I stood up from my bed. The next person I met on the way\nwas one of the robbers, who marched me to my children\u2019s rooms and ordered\neveryone to get up.
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\n\u201cThe\nrobbers were young boys between ages of 18 and 25. They ordered my children and\nI to lay face-down and threatened to kill whoever dared to look at them. At\nthat point, a lot of things went through my mind. But most importantly, I\nthought of my children; I didn\u2019t want anything to happen to them. I prayed.
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\n\u201cWhile\nthis was going on, three among the robbers went into the rooms and assigned two\npeople to guard us. To my shock, the robbers ransacked the whole apartment and\nbrought out every valuable they could find. They also collected about 10 phones\nfrom my children and carted away N500,000 I use for my POS transactions.\u201d
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\nBola added\nthat the robbers, who were armed with locally-made guns, took their time to finish\nthe operation before leaving two hours later.
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\nShe said:\n\u201cThey then went to Olajide Close where they also spent additional two hours and\nrobbed a couple of their money and valuables.
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\n\u201cAs I\nspeak with you now, I have not overcome the trauma of the robbery attack. Even\nmy children, who are adults, are also afraid to sleep in their rooms. None of\nus had ever had a gun pointed at him or her, let alone my children.\u201d
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\nBola\u2019s\nson, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that the robbers came fully\nprepared for the operations. He said the robbers took their time in ransacking\nthe apartment and carted whatever tickled their fancy.
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\nHe\ndisclosed that after the incident, the matter was reported at Mowe Police\nDivisional Headquarters for possible arrest of the suspects, but no arrest had\nbeen made.
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\nOur\ncorrespondent, who went to the community, heard from angry residents that\npolicemen in the axis preferred chasing cyclists and extorting money from them,\nto embarking on patrol of communities.
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\nOur\ncorrespondent also went to Olajide Close, but the victims of the robbers attack\nwere not at home.
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\nOn June\n20, another set of robbers stormed Mukadamu Street, where a POS operator was\nalso robbed of N1 million in her home.
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\nThe\nvictim, who gave her name as Barakat alias \u2018Iya Road Safety\u2019, said that fateful\nday was a day she would never forget for as long as she lived.
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\nShe said:\n\u201cThat fateful day, I started transaction on a good note, but about 1a.m. we\nwere sleeping when the strange visitors came and started banging on our gate.\nThey ordered us to open the door and threatened to deal with us if they found\ntheir way into our apartment themselves.
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\n\u201cOut of\npanic, my husband didn\u2019t open the door. They finally scaled the fence to gain\naccess into our compound. When they got into our sitting room, my husband and I\nhad already said our last prayers; because we thought they would do as they had\nearlier threatened.
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\n\u201cLuckily\nfor us, they didn\u2019t touch us, but they ransacked the rooms for money and\nvaluables. They came out with N1 million. It was the money I had just collected\nfrom the cooperative society. I wanted to use the money to boost my business.\nImmediately I saw the bag containing the money, I urinated on my body. I knew\nthere was no way I could return the money to the cooperative.\u201d
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\nBarakat\nadded that since the incident, police had not been able to arrest the suspects,\nwhile she now depended on her children to feed. She said that the robbery\nwrecked her business.
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\nA police\nsource at Mowe Divisional Headquarters told our correspondent that on a daily\nbasis, they received complaints of POS operators being attacked. The source\nsaid that the police were already having a series of meetings with the\noperators on precautionary methods of doing business in a community like Mowe\nand its environs.
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\nAt House\nNo. 5, Shotayo Adebayo Street, Abesan in Mosan Okunola Local Council\nDevelopment Area of Lagos State, a similar attack was carried out. One of the\nvictims is Mrs. Nike Akande.
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\nThe woman\nnarrated how the robbers collected money in her apartment, which she had\nearlier took as a loan from cooperative society. She disclosed that the robbery\nleft her devastated.
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\nAkande, a\nwidow, who lost her husband four years ago, decided to go into POS business as\na result of her ill health. She revealed that since the death of her husband,\nthings had not been the same for her and her children.
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\nShe said:\n\u201cI was given N1.2 million by my husband\u2019s family members after the demise of my\nhusband, to take care of my children. I decided to go into POS business, so as\nto have a close look on my younger children, because my first daughter just got\nadmission into the University of Ibadan to study Medicine and Surgery.
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\n\u201cThank God\nwhen I started the business, there was little patronage, but as time progressed,\npeople started coming and the money was yielding profit. I used to close\nbusiness at 7p.m.. I don\u2019t go beyond that hour.
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\n\u201cOn that\nfateful day, I was about to lock the main gate to our compound when three guys\nhijacked the gate from me and forced their way into my compound. Before I\nrealised what was happening, they had brought out guns and ordered me into my\nsitting room. Unfortunately, none of our neighbours knew what was happening.
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\n\u201cWhen the\nrobbers entered the sitting room, they sat on a couch and asked me to entertain\nthem. Out of panic, I went into the kitchen and got them soft drinks, after\nwhich I begged and told them that I was a widow, that they should have mercy on\nme. I became speechless when they told me how much they came to rob from me.
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\n\u201cWhen I\npleaded with them, I was told to go and bring N1 million. I begged them that\nthe only money I had in the house was N500,000. They collected the money and\nasked me to pray for them, which I did and then they left. It was after they\nhad gone that I ran out and started shouting; it was my cries that attracted my\ntenants. We checked round the whole community if we could get them,\nunfortunately, we couldn\u2019t trace them. That was how I lost my money.\u201d
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\nThe Ogun\nState Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, refused to\npick his calls neither did he reply to the text message sent to him to confirm\nthe attacks on POS operators.
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\nThe Lagos\nState Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Bala Elkana said, Point of\nSales Operators should take security issue serious especially in a business\nenvironment.
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\nElkana,\nHowever, Said, such a cases are isolated one, POS Operations should install\nClose Circuit Camera in their shops where they are doing business, so that if\nsuch incident occurred, Police would be able to analyse the video and go after\nthe robbers.\u2019
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\n\u201cThere was\na time, when a game centre was robbed, it was the CCTV footage that exposed the\nrobbers and they were arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nigerians, who have embraced Point of Sales (POS) as business and a means of survival, are now living in fear as robbers have turned attention on them. Operators at Mowe in Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State and those in Ayobo area of Lagos State, who have already experienced the venoms of these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n