The unifying power of the people was on display Monday night when residents came out to stop some gunmen from abducting the boss of a pharmacy store on Ogundele Street, Oko Oba, Orile Agege area of Lagos State.
It was gathered that there was pandemonium in the area when four gun and cutlass-wielding men, after robbing the store, also attempted to abduct the owner, identified as Samuel Oshanugor, in his car.
A resident in the area, James Alade, who witnessed the attack, said that the culprits came on bikes, gained access to the pharmacy around 10 pm and forcefully took cash and phones.
“The gunmen dragged the owner from the shop into his car that was parked outside, but the tyres got stuck in a bad portion of the road when they tried driving the car away,” Alade said.
The pharmacy manager, Lawrence Olawale, said he had closed and was going home on Monday night when he was called that some thieves were robbing his boss, who was the only one left in the shop as of that time.
The manager said he ran back towards the store and raised the alarm alongside other residents.
“When I got close, I saw them reversing the car forcefully, they warned me that if I came close, they would shoot me. I just had to step back a little and screamed and people on the street were already aware, so everybody started shouting ‘Thief!’. Two of them had guns and others held cutlasses.
“When the Acura car got stuck, we observed that they couldn’t drive it out, so people who were aware of the development were already closing in on the suspects, but we could not get so close to the armed men because of their weapons.
“But people began throwing stones and bottles at them. Three of them eventually fled while the fourth person who was monitoring the people’s movement was overpowered by the men in the area,” Olawale said.
He added that the three others climbed the fence and fled. “All the money we made, they took it, they took my boss’ three phones. They were going to drive him away, it was an attempted kidnap,” the manager said.
An official of the Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corps, Bello Ahmed, described how he and other residents aided the arrest of one of the suspects.
Bello, who said they had already heard of a robbery at a particular place, said they were relaxing at a spot when the suspect dashed out from nowhere barefooted and they began questioning him as he looked suspicious.
“The suspect passed by us. As he passed, he tried to mislead us by saying some robbers raided the pharmacy. He added that the robbers also hijacked an Okada he boarded, but out of curiousity, the two of us grabbed him by the trousers and dragged him.
“By the time we took him to the scene of the robbery, the CCTV camera confirmed him as one of the robbers and he finally confessed,” Bello said.
Bello said the culprits brought guns to the scene and made away with phones and cash.
The Station Officer, Abattoir Police Station, Ofem Bassey, said an investigation was ongoing into the matter.
“Investigation is still ongoing. We want to see if we can get the fleeing suspects,” he said.
He said the case would be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department at Panti, adding, “We have been on an intensive patrol in the area.”
