In the early hours of Friday, August 27, 2021, Nigeria happened to me. I had seen/heard people pray about Nigeria not happening to them but I saw and felt firsthand what that is all about that disastrous night. It was around 12:30 am. I had just finished with a task. I went on Twitter to read a few tweets before I retire for the night. A friend of mine was getting wedded the next day and I was already prepared to travel when the day breaks.
All my plans soon evaporated before my eyes when I heard the voices of strange men in my compound around Gospel Town, Ojoo, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. I heard them banging my neighbour’s door, the flat directly opposite mine, asking the man to come out. My initial thought was that my neighbour had wronged cultists who came for him in the middle of the night. But that thought quickly flew out of the window once I realised my door was being hit with shouts of “shi ilekun e (open your door)”. Reality dawned on me; we have assailants in the compound.
They had settled to enter my apartment first because they had trouble opening my neighbour’s door. It was the scariest moment of my life. I did not know what to do. I ran into my kitchen with my phone in my hand. It didn’t take long before my door gave way after several kicks. They entered the room and started looting. They came to meet me in the kitchen where I knelt on the floor, shaking.
Shocked, I still had my phone in my hands with no plan to hide it. Two men came inside the kitchen, armed with guns directly pointed at me. They collected my phone from me, dragged me from the floor, and asked me to provide them with the password. It was the first time in my life I had a real fear that I could die in seconds or minutes. I kept begging them to stop pointing the guns at me and promising to cooperate. They left with my phone, tablet, laptop, wristwatch, wallet, power bank, backpack, and a neighbour’s phone (she had come to charge it at my apartment the previous night and didn’t come back to collect it). My two-week-old TV was the only valuable that survived the onslaught. Sometimes, I don’t know whether to blame myself for not hiding some of my gadgets. But the rude shock didn’t give me any chance.
After leaving my apartment, the armed robbers went to the other flats to attack them too. It’s a compound of 12 flats/mini-flats. They went on and on, breaking windows, and shooting in the air without any disruption to their operation. I didn’t have anything to keep track of time but we (the victims) all estimated the attack went on for nearly two hours. The assailants were patient, going from flat to flat, to inflict the carnage. They made sure they raided all but two of the flats before leaving. A lucky neighbour whose apartment wasn’t attacked silently called the house’s manager as the attack was ongoing. The manager called the Amotekun Corps to respond to the attack but operatives didn’t arrive until about one hour after the armed robbers had left. All the Amotekun operatives could do was pick up the cartridges from the armed robbers’ shots. It was the most traumatising moment of my life and I still can’t shake the trauma to date.
The attack only compounded my woes. It had come two months after I lost my old phone and the thief got more than N100,000 out of my account. The bank had told me there was nothing they could do. The Police told me their tracking equipment had not been functioning for more than four months, so they could not track my phone. I had been so helpless. I was reeling from such a huge loss. Then, came the fatal blow of the attack on my apartment. Instantly, I knew I was alone and I wouldn’t get justice. I knew the Police would not help me. That definitely killed me. Knowing that you’re on your own and the people paid to protect you can’t help you. No doubt, this lack of legal justice fuels jungle justice.
When the day broke, after the attack, we went to the Orogun Police Station to write statements. The Police officers’ statements confirmed my frustration. Instead of talking about coming to the house to investigate the attack, which would have been the ideal response, the officers asked us to thank God for not being wounded or killed. They went on a spree of stories of unfortunate armed robbery victims who weren’t as lucky as we were. Of course, we were lucky to escape unhurt but I didn’t expect sermons from the Police. I expected that from my pastor. I wanted the Police to promise to investigate the attack but I got none of that. Instead, we got an array of unhelpful motivational speeches. I knew the Nigeria Police Force was not a serious entity but my experiences with them opened my eyes to even more disturbing revelations about their competence.
That Friday, I left the house for my parent’s place. Nothing prepared me for what I’ve had to suffer since that time. I’ve continued to be triggered by loud sounds. Three days after I got to my parent’s house, I experienced a shocker. At midnight, the standing fan in my room fell hard and it jolted me out of sleep. I lied motionless for several minutes, scared that some attackers had hit our front door hard. My mind wasn’t at rest until I saw the fan on the floor and I realized what had really happened.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve been triggered since the attack. And I know I’m not alone in this boat. My neighbours will be. Hundreds of armed robbery victims in Ibadan will be too.
In recent months, Ibadan has become a hotspot for armed robbers and leadership seems to be lacking in terms of proactive actions. Day after day, week after week, I keep hearing about robbery attacks in the city. Sometime in November, a fairly popular Twitter user was allegedly robbed and killed in Ibadan. A few hours before his death, he had tweeted about a football match. Two weeks ago, a popular baker in Ibadan was robbed at her Bodija residence. Besides carting away her phone and other gadgets, her bank account was wiped before she could get her bank to block it. These senseless attacks have continued unabated.
While the state government would like everyone to pretend that everything is fine due to the availability of security toll lines, nothing is fine. Our house manager called the same toll line and operatives arrived one hour late. That doesn’t help anybody. What about preventing these attacks instead of reacting to them?
Frankly, there’s no federal leadership in terms of security in Nigeria. Every sincere Nigerian knows this and I’m sure Governor Seyi Makinde does too. The governor has to fill the leadership vacuum and protect residents of his state from these nefarious elements.
To be clear: I know I have no hope of getting my stolen properties back (the Police made that clear to me) and I’ll have to work my ass off to replace them. Nevertheless, the government and security agencies can’t let this happen to anyone again. No one deserves to suffer this trauma (except the agents of darkness who have devoted their lives to making other people cry, of course). This madness doesn’t have to continue. The security agencies must be able to do their job. The governor must see these armed robbery cases as what they are—an epidemic—and do everything in his power to get rid of them.
In his September 9 newsletter, Governor Makinde said his government was always thinking of “economy first”. No, any serious government should always be thinking of “security first”. You can’t improve an economy or the lives of citizens/residents without the right level of security. I strongly hope the governor and his government will change course quickly and start thinking “security first”. Every resident is counting on them to do that bit.
Without any doubt, this is the hardest piece I’ve ever written. Reliving the traumatic experience nearly made me stop writing but I couldn’t stop because if there’s any chance that my personal experience could create a needed shift, I wasn’t about to let it go. Again, Governor Makinde has the responsibility of never allowing a resident of the state to go through the pain and trauma I and others have gone through and are still going through. That’s a burden no one should ever have to carry.
Clearly, 2021 hasn’t gone as I envisioned. Of course, I’ve done nice things for myself but the ugly has trumped the good, sadly. I hope and pray that 2022 will be better. Amen.
