Day robbers evicted tenants of an Abuja estate

However, I returned home at about 11:30 pm, watched one television program and being under stress, I located my bed and crashed in like a log of wood. In a twinkle of an eye, I slept off like a baby, but my wife chose to keep vigil in prayers at a church right behind our […]

However, I returned home at about 11:30 pm, watched one television program and being under stress, I located my bed and crashed in like a log of wood. In a twinkle of an eye, I slept off like a baby, but my wife chose to keep vigil in prayers at a church right behind our estate. The church was holding its first Friday all night service. It is a monthly affair.

But the rest I thought I could have from my fatigued induced smooth sleep came to an abrupt end when my wife tapped me to inform me of the presence of some ‘night visitors’.  I woke up in anger, wondering why the woman could punch me that hard to wake me up for our usual morning devotion. When I woke up, I cleaned my face, looked at the wall clock- it was 3:27am, but before I could ask why the woman had to wake me up at that ungodly hour, I saw my panicky wife pointing at the window with a faint and trembling   voice, saying ‘’they are here again, robbers, see them in the compound and more are still coming in from the fence’’

When I peeped through the window, I saw no fewer than ten armed men taking positions in readiness to strike. It dawned on me that it was no longer time to sleep or ask further questions. I ran to the wardrobe; picked my shorts, wore it, moved aimlessly in the room, praying that the cup should pass over us. But before I could say amen, the robbers at the command of their leader swooped on the flat opposite my own and after two kicks, the iron door gave way. Three of them rushed inand we began to hear our neighbours creaming for help.

I became alarmed and terrified as I tried to imagine what could be going on in my neighbour’s apartment, and what would happen if the ‘visitors’ break into our room. My wife and I turned the circumstance into a moment of prayer, but we dared not speak out.  My wife’s state was worse as she could neither pray nor cry but was wandering between our room and the children’s room, crawling like a baby. I was equally scared but I tried never to let my family know I was almost melting in fear.

Their operation in the flat opposite mine didn’t last because they met only the children at home. Their parents travelled for a wedding outside Abuja that evening. They however dispossessed the children of their handsets and other valuables after manhandling one of the boys who attempted proving to the robbers that he was man enough.

Within five minutes, they finished their operation in the opposite flat and headed for the other flat beside mine. My temperature rose and I shivered so visibly that I could no longer mutter any word of prayer, but my lips were still moving, asking God to let the cup pass over us.

In the flat beside mine, they wasted time, ransacking everywhere, including the toilet. The occupants of that flat are all females. I mean good looking young girls. The robbers as we were told later attempted rapping one of the girls they met in her natural state raping when the door was forced open. The daredevils collected cash, handsets and jewelries from the ladies.

They headed straight for my door after the operation in the ladies’ flat. When I heard the first bang on my door, my heart skipped and I came close to wetting my trouser, but when I looked at my wife who was already weeping, I summed up courage, arranged all the monies we have in the house, as we had given up that nothing would stop the robbers from breaking our door which is a wooden door, if they could break the iron doors.

 From my window, I watched the brazen act of wickedness of the daredevils. They would go backward in twos and come running, then kick the door, they tried three consecutive times, but to my dismay, the door was still standing, before they could try the fourth time, the gang leader ordered that they should stop, saying “the door has protector, common lets go,” and they fled the compound the way they came in via the fence.

This episode was the second robbery attack on the estate in three months. The first attack on the estate was on February 5 and the raid was repeated on May 7, in a manner that suggested a reprisal. In the February episode, the robbers struck at about 2: am, the security man guarding the estate raised an alarm before escaping through a broken wall of the fence behind the compound.

 In the ensued confusion created by the escaping guard, the robbers became confused and ran away. We (tenants) later came out, discussing our traumatic experiences on sighting the robbers in the compound. While we were still talking, the reinforced robbers returned at about 3: am shooting into the air and we scampered to safety.

While some of us, particularly those with family, ran into our rooms, some escaped through the collapsed fence behind one of the flats in the estate.  The furious robbers went straight to the flats facing the main estate gate, swooped on the first, second and third flats, but met empty rooms as the occupants did not return to the rooms when the robbers staged a comeback.

It was in that frustration that they left the compound, concluding that we had all run away from our rooms. Nobody dared come out again until dawn. In fear, the tenants contributed money, built the collapsed fence, raised the fence by two coaches and repaired the gate.

The incident was reported to the police, and the police kept surveillance in the area for sometimes, creating sense of security in the neighbourhood before some us could get over the trauma. But some never did before the second attack.

One spectacular trait of the ungodly incident is that the robbers usually attack when a church behind the estate holds an all night program. The first one was on a Friday/Saturday when the church was holding tonight vigil; the second incident was also on Friday/Saturday morning when the church was holding its night program.

It was learnt that the men of the underworld take advantage of the noise emanating from the church to operate without drawing attention of other persons in the neighbourhoods. However, the church programs turned out to be a source of help for the tenants.

For instance, on these two occasions, when some church members noticed the presence of robbers in the estate, they began to throw stones into the compound, a development that usually put the robbers off balance.

During the first attack, the robbers ran abandoning some of their weapons, including clubs and cutlasses. It was the same scenario during the second attack, a development which is suggestive of the fact that the robbers ran away in fear too.

However, unlike the first attack where tenants only fortified the internal securities by changing doors, raising the fence and repairing the gate, the second coming of the robbers causeda  mass exodus of tenants from the estate.

A day after the incident, the ladies who narrowly escaped being raped by the robbers packed out of the estate. Subsequently, all members of the estate packed out, including this reporter for the fear of the unknown.