Villagers and commercial motorcyclists, popularly known as okada riders, in One-man Village, a community in Nyanya axis, have lamented that unknown gunmen have been attacking the area recently, collecting their valuables at gunpoint.
The villagers are attacked in their homes at night while the motorcyclists are ambushed on the road, Blueprint learnt during a visit to the area at the weekend.
The latest attack, according Ibro Karami, a motorcyclist, happened last week, and four motorcyclists were killed. Their motorcycles were carted away by the attackers.
According to Karami, nine motorcyclists suffered the same fate before the latest incident.
Karami said the gunmen attack homes too, to collect properties at gunpoint, but only okada riders have suffered death.
“Not only okada men have been attacked. They do attack houses, too, but nobody we have heard has been killed by them at home; only the okada men have been killed,” Karami lamented.
Last week’s attack, however spawned protest by dozens of cyclists in the area, as they blocked Nyanya-Keffi road. The protest caused serious traffic gridlock which lasted for hours.
“Armed policemen had to come and disperse the protesters before the holdup eased off towards the evening,” a resident, who begged not to be named, told Blueprint.
A number of the cyclist who spoke to our correspondent at the weekend complained that they had reported the cases to the police several time, but no action had been taken.
“In May, one of us was killed and on Thursday, four were killed. Now everybody is afraid of doing okada in this area. We cannot remain like this for them to kill all of us,” Tanko Barde, an okada rider, complained.
Another okada rider, Abdul Dantala, said: “If action is not quickly taken, the perpetrators are not ready to stop. The police should do everything to arrest the people behind this crime and make it safe for us to continue what we do to take care of ourselves.”
A resident who lives close to the crime scene told our correspondent that he heard gunshots on the night the okada riders were killed.
“I was inside the house with my family when I heard gunshots at night, around 11:30pm. Those guys are not even afraid. At that time, so many people were still outside, yet they were bold enough to carry out an attack. It just tells you that security isn’t tight in this area,” he said.
A police officer, who refused to be name because he was not ordered to speak about the incident, confirmed the incident but said “I don’t know the number of the people that actually died in the attack.”
According to him, “a team had already been assigned to investigate the issue and a proper position would be made available soon.”
However, the Chief of the area, Alhaji Magaji Karimu, said, at the backdrop of the attacks, he had written to the police to increase security surveillance in the area.
Karimu, who spoke through his secretary, Sarkin Pada, said he had not received any response but he was sure it would come soon.
He said the palace first received news about the attackers in January this year and channeled it to the relevant authority.
“We regret what happened last week, and we are begging the Okada men to please take heart. We have written a letter to the authorities to increase patrol in this area so that insecurity would be stopped and the perpetrators be arrested. We are sure the response will come back to us soon.
“We first received the news of these gunmen in January and we told the authorities, it is unfortunate for it to happen last week again,” he explained.
The Chief advised the motorcyclists to be law-abiding and wait for the police to “sort out the whole problem,” adding that: “We are also reconstituting a vigilante group to help in the matter.”
