Ritualists, kidnappers, robbers, and rapists have now developed a new technique to track down unwary travellers and turn them into victims as government and security personnel work to end insecurity in Ogun State and Nigeria generally.
It was demonstrated that they now go around pretending to be cyclists and cab drivers for hire.
These fictitious business drivers are mostly among the Yorubas who are referred to as “Sl” in popular culture. Without using an identifiable parking lot, they pick up clients on the side of the road and transport them to their destinations.
The sl system is widely used on country’s main roadways. Some of these drivers use this tactic to avoid spending hours in line at authorized motor parks while waiting for passengers. The majority of travelers also dislike wasting valuable time waiting for other travelers to board their flights.
As they do not pay fees levied on their colleagues by transport union officials at motorparks, the sl drivers undercut their transit fares to recruit roadside passengers. It was learned that some of them earn more money than their coworkers at the parks. Roadside drivers are enjoyed by commuters on a tight budget, those in a rush, and those whose homes are far from the designated parks.
“I get into taxis by the road. Instead of going to parks, where I would pay more and possibly waste time, I prefer this. In Sango, a civil servant named Mordiya Adeyemi said, “I don’t think there is anything wrong with it.
It was discovered today that some people have used this to kill, rape, or rob their victims.
Ritualists, kidnappers, thieves, and even rapists now pose as taxi drivers, tricycle riders, and okada riders to lure unsuspecting passengers into becoming their victims.
The wicked deed has reportedly grown very concerning, particularly on the routes connecting Abeokuta, Sagamu, and Ogere, Ijebu-Ode, Ibadan, and Lagos, among other places.
“Those innocent travelers are going to be killed by the ritualists so they can perform lucrative rites. The passengers will be held captive by the kidnappers until they pay a ransom, while the rapists only target women in order to force them to have sex with them and may even kill them.
“The trees around these highways are where these criminals hide out. Many of them even need charms to operate. As soon as you get in their cars, you pass out or become unconscious. Some use weapons to threaten their victims. We live in a very challenging period. Everyone needs to start seeing things, a driver on the Abeokuta-Iperu highway informed our reporter in an unnamed manner.
The driver, who was in his 60s, recalled how the transport union task team had detained a ritualist who “admitted he used to sell a human head at the sum of N50,000.”
Recall that the Ogun State police command recently issued a warning over the possibility of an unnamed serial murderer who was rumored to be prowling the Remo axis of the State.
Abimbola Oyeyemi, a police public information officer in Ogun, claimed the serial murderer used to pose as an okada rider and select his intended female victims as passengers.
Such victims would be “brought to an isolated spot, raped and mercilessly murdered in cold blood,” according to Oyeyemi.
This was said as security personnel were looking for the assassins of the late Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, beauty queen. Whether or not the Remo serial killers have been apprehended since August is unknown.
In Ogijo, Sagamu Local Government Area of Ogun State, the police detained a bike rider and another person in the same month who picked up a female passenger and forcibly transported her to a building where she was gang-raped by three young males.
Idowu Adebayo, a 21-year-old okada driver from Sango-Ota, was detained by the So-Safe Corps after reportedly kidnapping, trying to rape, and killing a female passenger in the community of Ayegbe.
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Around 4 am on June 22, a tricycle driver had sexually assaulted a female passenger and taken her money. Rasaq Tahoeed, 22, had picked up the passenger at the well-known Pakoto bus station traveling to Iyana Coker in Ifo, but the rider changed her destination after threatening to murder her if she didn’t comply, according to authorities.
Additionally, a female passenger was allegedly kidnapped, raped, and held for N140,000 in ransom by a taxi driver named Tunde Bello along the Mowe axis of the route a few months ago. The victim was assaulted and battered after boarding Bello’s taxi at around five in the morning and being driven into a thicket along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway when the driver diverted to Ibadan road.
According to the police, who also added that the suspect admitted to the crime, “After raping her, he held her prisoner and instructed her to phone her relatives. They provided the sum of N140,000 to him as ransom before he let her go.”
The police recently detained two ritualists who kidnapped Abdullahi Azeez, killed him, and then utilized his body parts in a ritual to get money. On June 8, the 40-year-old victim allegedly left his Kobape home, but he never came back. Although it is unclear exactly how Friday Abinya Odeh (21) and Poso Idowu (20) abducted him, there are rumors that he was likely taken away while in transit.
According to information provided by our correspondent, there are several instances of people going missing or being attacked after entering buses or cars along the side of the road.
“We have witnessed folks come to our parks and announce that a family member is missing. Some folks recently came to Kuto Motorpark to report the disappearance of a family member. When we questioned where he got into a cab, they responded by the bridge. They were informed that was incorrect. The driver of those unregistered, untraceable vehicles is unknown, according to a representative of the Road Transport Employers Association.
Gov. Abiodun acts quickly
It was discovered a few weeks ago that a private vehicle had stopped next to the Kuto bridge to pick up passengers heading in the direction of Siun and Sagamu. However, a few kilometers into the drive, the car took a diversion into the jungle, where the women on board were raped and stripped of all of their possessions.
When Governor Dapo Abiodun learned of the occurrence, he allegedly gave a directive to all state security officials to act quickly to prevent further incidents.
According to information obtained by our correspondent, Lanre Bankole, the commissioner of police for the state of Ogun, summoned representatives of the transportation industry and ordered them to close down any unlicensed motor parks and prohibit the use of vehicles for passenger pickup on the road.
Since then, union leaders have been cracking down on drivers waiting to pick up passengers on the road in coordination with security personnel, and all unlawful motor parks have been “dismantled.”
According to Comrade Olalekan Adebayo, Branch Chairman of Abeokuta South II, Ogun State Parks Management Board, “three weeks ago, a car loaded passengers beside the Kuto bridge; six people, three women and three men, including the driver, were in the cab. The motorist took a diversion into the route on the right that is immediately after Day Waterman.
“These men raped the women and took everything off of them. They expelled these women once they had satisfied their own desires. They told some government representatives their narrative, emphasizing that they boarded the cab under the Kuto bridge, after they were spotted by the road coming out of the jungle.
The governor phoned the police commissioner to ask him to put an end to these heinous kidnappings by imposter drivers throughout the entire state of Ogun. The CP also called representatives from the transport unions, and we began the enforcement by removing all unlawful parking lots. Security personnel from the State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps have attended a number of our sessions (TRACE).
We began on Monday, and since then, we have pleaded with the public to use the park to board cars for their various destinations. It’s secure. Because of the N100 or N200 gap, people shouldn’t go and waste their lives and resources. We have watched how these criminals robbed a man of N500,000. Can you affirm that the man had N500 to pay? Come and tell us in the park if you don’t have any money, and we’ll help you. We safeguard your valuables and have a manifest. If you leave something in our cars, you can come back to the park to get it later; if you just jumped into a car on the side of the road, that is not possible.
Security personnel attack the task team by posing as passing motorists.
It was discovered that certain security agency employees in Ogun had taken jobs as roadside vendors to supplement their income.
Transport union leaders claimed that under the guise of police, these security personnel attack the task force established to quell the activities of roadside vendors.
I must state that security personnel have made it challenging for us to implement the law. Attacking our task force while acting as if they are above the law, they are the ones doing this.
We have instructed them to visit the parks if they require passengers, and we will do so. But they’ll always hang out along the road. Regarding this, action must be taken.
Oyeyemi, a police spokesman, responds
The majority of recent cases, according to our correspondent, Ogun police image maker, Oyeyemi, are not reported to the police.
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Oyeyemi urged residents of Ogun to use designated parks rather than looking for free or inexpensive rides beside the road, but he also argued that the police support union leaders’ efforts to put an end to some roadside drivers’ unlawful behavior.
Oyeyemi emphasized that no officer has the right to attack the union task force while performing their jobs, and that the case would be looked into in regards to security officers who engage in commercial driving without reservations at authorized parks.
