The festive period is very much around us. While we are planning big for the period through hard work, some idle hands are busy planning evil just to make it fast and look big during the same period through robbery and other means.

However, if you are driving at night and have some eggs thrown at your car’s windshield, do not operate your wiper or spray any water. Be reminded that eggs mixes with water and becomes milky which may block ones vision up to 92.5 % and one can be forced to stop at road side thereby becoming a victim of robbery. God forbid!!

Don’t stop either. Just try to see through the side window of the car to drive up to a safe distance before pulling off the road for a thorough wash of the screen.

This is a new technique used by robbers.

Please be guided.

The Lord will surely see all us through the period safely and shield us from all evils, Amen. Take care and drive safely while wishing you the best compliments of the seasons.

Regards,

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Fellas, our creative neighbours have discovered new ways of laying ambush for unsuspecting lagosians. The latest trick now works like this.

1. You park your car at the mall, an eatery, a cinema or church.
2. Someone removes your number plate, the one closest to the wall or another car.
3. You get in the car and drive off
4. Someone in okada or taxi or any car flags you down brandishing your number plate in your face (you recognize it cos its yours and you are not like me – I don’t know mine!)
5. You slow down and park hoping to tip the good samaritan and continue your mugu journey but the “well-meaning” lagosian shows you his red eye and robs you pants down, if possible, steal your car.
6. You are now officially on your own. If you are mature enough to follow protocol (your best bet), you call the police, go home take a bathe, thank God for preserving your life and sleep your sorrows away. Joy cometh in the morning brother. Next time. Next freaking time, obey your instincts.

What do we do?
You now need to check both number plates before leaving the parking lot, either way, do NOT stop even if someone on bike (okada) or another car shows you your mother’s head, in fact, exercise your rights on the wheels, NO SPEED LIMIT!

ps: It could be your scarf, notebook, mobile phone, but whatever it is, just let it go.

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Who's next on their preylist?

Sometime ago, I notified you of the upsurge in kidnapping all over the country and recently in Lagos, well, if my statistics are right, 1 out of 10 people know someone who’s relative was recently kidnapped. Don’t you? Churches and schools have seriously stepped up their game in identifying parents and guardian of pupils (you know the type of school I’m referring to of course, he that is down needs fear no kidnap). With unemployment taking its toll on the family, to whom much is given… , our graduates have to survive and give something back to the family as fast as possible and they are taking it to the extreme based on the fact that we live in a community where so much emphasis is placed on material things. You just have to hammer, you gast to be bigs! Interswitch ATM card threats (419 scam), street begging, pick pocketting, bag snatching, shop lifting, car stealing, contract killing, car smuggling, gigoloing, oil bunkering, road waylaying, armed robbery, yahoozeeing and last but not the least, kidnapping.

Youths now “work from home”, the order of the day.

By the way, I’ve not been feeding well lately, I am begging you kidnappers out there, please come for me! I’m worth at least 15,000 naira so far you’ll be feeding me thrice daily for at least two weeks He he he. Please see a forwarded mail from my colleague right below, you may have seen it before but the question is, did you pass it on?

Kidnapping is becoming rampant, like HIV, it is now a scourge. It is real!

In this era of kidnapping, just to add to our caution list and tips. I got this from an ex-colleague……………………….

“I felt I should share this experience with you so that you will be careful how you deal with people who are unfamiliar with you.
About a month ago, a family friend in Abuja, Nigeria received anonymous telephone calls and text messages demanding a ransom of
NGN1, 200,000, failure which he and/or members of his family would either be kidnapped or shot.
No reason was given for the threat.  The gang was very thorough in their details of my friend’s family and his movement.
They gave him the first and middle names of each of his children and his wife, which were known only to very close relatives.  On one occasion, the gang gave a description of the clothes he wore on a particular day and the times he went out and came in.
The recipient was advised to play along with the group while efforts were made to contact the State Security Service (SSS) and the Police.
Two weeks ago, the gang issued a 48-hour ultimatum for the money to be paid.
The SSS contacted the management of the commercial bank nominated by the gang for the deposit of the ransom.  My friend was then advised to deposit the sum of NGN200, 000 in the Abuja account.  Three hours after the deposit was made, attempt was made to withdraw the money in a branch of the bank in Lagos.  The bank immediately alerted the police who arrested the man and kept him incommunicado.
As other members of the gang could not reach their member who was then in Police custody, they rang my friend to enquire if he reported the banking details to security agencies.  When my friend enquired why they asked, he was told that they had neither seen nor heard from the man they sent to collect the ransom from the bank.  The gang appeared to have bought the lie sold to them by my friend when he told them that the man might have absconded with the money.  Two hours later, they sent an account in another commercial bank for the remittance of the balance ransom.

The security agencies again placed alert on the account after which my friend paid in NGN200, 000.  Soon after the deposit was made, two men worked into a branch of the commercial bank, again in Lagos, to withdraw the money.  They were both arrested and handed over to the police.  All three men are now being interrogated by the FCT Command of the Nigeria Police.

In the course of the investigation, it was found that all three men had been contracted by my friend to drill a borehole in his house about two months ago.
While they were constructing the borehole, my friend’s wife had occasions to take them in her car to some places in Abuja to purchase materials for the works.  On one occasion, she had left a file containing her school records and other personal documents on the back seat of the car.  A member of the gang scanned through the file and extracted some vital personal information with the use of his mobile phone.  Also, during the course of the two weeks when they drilled the borehole, they had interviewed my friend’s two little children, aged four and three, to know their full names.”

There is so much we can learn from this incident.
    First, personal and sensitive information should not be left in a place where unauthorized persons could have access to them.
    Second, in our homes we should use only workmen who have been referenced and/or are familiar.
    And third, we should teach our household members to not speak to strangers.

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Daylight Bank Robberies are now the order of the day as Niger Delta boys step up from kidnapping and demanding ransome to actually tapping from the source of the ransoms. Banks within and outside Lagos now open in fear as these ruthless guys come in armed and trigger happy. You may find the following pictures disgusting as they contain very violent scenes and blood. View at your discretion.

The bullet holes, violence, the blood splatter, the destruction and the psychological trauma of all who witnessed this. God help us. Name of bank and branch witheld.

Here The Punch has a January Bank Robbery report

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