About 20 dare-devil robbers reportedly invaded Jamade street, Opposite Goshen land, a sub-community of Apete in Ido Local government area of Oyo state early Thursday morning, inflicting deep cutlass cuts on no fewer than six persons and carted away valuable properties.
According to sources in the communities, the robbers stormed the area around 1am and robbed not less than ten houses, including the residence of the Deputy Photo Editor of the Guardian Newspaper, Mr Najeem Raheem whose son, Faruk fainted as a result of the iron rod used to hit him when he put up resistance.
His father, Najeem Raheem, had escaped by the whiskers from the attackers but the wife was not that lucky as she was matcheted on her hand by the robbers.
A student hostel was also attacked in the area where no fewer than four students sustained matchet cuts with others inflicted with other varying degrees of injuries.
Source said the police were called severally but they did not get to the location until more than one and half hours later.
This was despite the fact that the distance between the Divisional Police Station, Apete and the crime scene was not more than five minutes.
Sources said the house of an Islamic cleric, who rears cow in the neighborhood, Alhaji Adekunle; the house of a Lead City lecturer and that of another staff of West African Examinations Council (WAEC) were among those robbed.
Some of the victims stated the thieves, mostly young boys distributed themselves to the houses, stealing laptops, phones and cash while destroying valuables.
The physically disturbed residents stated that the entire Apete, and particularly Yidi-Arola and Ariyibi communities have been under attacks by thieves since the partial lockdown of Oyo State due to Coronavirus pandemic.
They called for security deployment to the area.
A resident of the community, who pleaded anonymity, stated: “The police that came were even blaming residents asking them where they got the phones that were stolen by the thieves. This is the least we expected from Police who said they are our friends.
“Infact some people called 615 released by government and other numbers. We didnt get response. In this community alone no fewer than 40 houses have been attacked with not less than 30 persons sustaining all sorts of injuries after loosing valuables in the last one month”.
Dayo Ojelaru, one of those who sustained matchet cuts on his legs, described the experience as harrowing.
Faruk Najeem, the son of the Guardian deputy photo Editor, has however been revived and was sleeping at the time of filing this report.
His father stated: “I thank God I didn’t lose my son and wife. They came in through the fence and stormed my compound. My wife sustained matchet cut and my son was hit with iron making him to loose consciousness.
“We called the police but the response was not encouraging. The Commissioner of police needs to deploy more teams to Apete community and Yidi-arola for regular patrol. These are serial attackers. We cant sleep with our eyes closed anymore.
“Governor Makinde also needs to see to this rising insecurity. We have turned ourselves to night guards. We are suffering the bad economy and the government must protect us. We need more police presence in Apete, Yidi-arola and Ariyibi. A good government must be able to protect the lives and properties of her citizens.” (The Nation)
