BY: DADA IFEOLUWA FAITH
Shop owners in Unity Estate Phase 2, Ilorin South Local Government Area of Kwara State, have lamented the growing insecurity in the community following a robbery incident that left businesses with significant losses.
The victims decried the alleged lack of night patrols by the Nigeria Police Force, poor road infrastructure and inadequate street lighting, which they said have heightened security concerns in the area.
One of the victims, a caterer who identified herself as Chef D, said she discovered that her shop had been burgled after receiving a call from her neighbour. She said the robbers carted away her freezer, solar equipment, fans, stabilisers, cooking pots, rice, soup and drinks, leaving her struggling to rebuild her business.
“One Saturday morning, my neighbor called me around 6:50 that I should be coming down to my shop unfortunately getting there, I met that my shop has been burgled. They took my freezer, my solar, my fan, so many things including two stabilizers, fan, food, pot of soup, pot of rice and drinks, they wiped off literarily everything.”
“right now, I’m not that okay but I’m just trying to be. in this our country, you need to struggle more to have a better life again. I can’t just sit down at home not doing anything so I just have to struggle back with the little I have which is not that much”.
“My own opinion is that we need more security we don’t have any security here, no patrol, no street light. This place gets dark by 8pm. Everywhere gets silent and then, you won’t see anybody passing. So I just bought my own solar and fixed it in my shop due to what happened to me.”
Another shop owner, Michael Ajayi, a furniture maker, said he was yet to recover from the impact of the attack on his business.
“We face a lot of things in our shop like thieves breaking into our shop so many times. We face a lot of things in our shop like thieves burgling into our shop so we lost a lot of customers “.
“It affected us a lot in so many ways that we no longer have customers and we also lost our working tools”.
“We are going to beg the government officials that they should protect our shop. We’ve reported to the police but they didn’t do anything so we need the help of the police to protect our shop”.
The chairman of Unity Estate Phase 2, Eda Abolarin Joseph, described insecurity as a major concern, citing bad roads, darkness at night and the alleged unavailability of security personnel when needed. He added that the situation had caused financial setbacks, fear and the relocation of some residents.
“The issue of insecurity I want to say is a menance in our community because recently one of the major shop in this community where they sell food was robbed. They carried away factually all they have in that shop it is not only that, there are so many areas that this thieves touched. They robbed the shops and carried away most of their goods”.
“One of the major causes of insecurity in our community is as a result of easy access road because where the roads are bad there is every possibility that movement can be hampered helping the bandits to have easy access and operate. Another major cause of this insecurity is lack of street lights because in the night, the environment is always in the blackout you cannot feel at a distance who is approaching you or who you are approaching. finally one of the major causes of this insecurity is that the security agents themselves they are not accessible in the night if there is any problem and you call them, they will say they don’t have any available vehicle or at times, they will say they don’t have fuel in their vehicle and so they may not be available”.
“The issue of insecurity have immensely affected the life of the people in this community because it has caused untimely relocation of people. It has also caused a lot of set back to the businesses of people, it has caused a lot of fear in the minds of the people in the community. Some people haven even raped in their houses”.
“One measure is that we pray to God for his protection because we don’t have easy to the security men. If you call them in time of need, they may not be available some houses and streets had to hire night guards to protect their lives and properties. All the community members in some of our community meetings try to exchange phone numbers so that if anyone hear a strange sound in the night, they can easily communicate it to their neighbors. Also, we have the phone number of the police and some security agents too that we can call upon even though they will not quickly respond but we still call them so those are the few measures. Some people also have dogs that can raise alarm in case they hear any strange voice in the night so those are few measures we put in place”.
“we face a lot of challenges sometimes to put some of this measures in place it will involve money and many at times the money may not be made available”.
‘many at times we have had series of community community meeting with the policemen we used to advise them or tell them to take a measure of having police post effectually at strategic areas in the community again, we encourage them to always take patrol in the night in the community so as to scare away all this idea of stealing around. Again, the community also tried to erect some security light around”.
Joseph called on the police to establish posts at strategic locations and intensify night patrols to deter criminal activities. He also urged the community to improve street lighting and strengthen cooperation among residents.