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If your phone got stolen in Lagos, Go buy it back at Kasuwa market, Ajegunl!
“After the day’s robbery, we will sell off the phones and jewellery at Kasuwa Market in Boundary, Ajegunle, Lagos. In fact, any person that was robbed along Mile 2-Apapa Expressway should quickly rush to the market and buy the stolen property back.”
This was the confession of an armed robber, simply known as Ekezie, who was recently arrested in Lagos.
According to him, Kasuwa Market is where he was disposing of all the stolen goods at give-away prices.
He advised victims to gently plead with the sellers who are also criminals to sell back the stolen products.
“If the information in the laptop or phone is important to you, as soon as you get there, request for that particular phone and offer
to pay them if it could be found. I promise you that it would be found,” he further said.
Worried by such information, Saturday Sun decided to pay a visit to this market.
And for days, it was difficult to trace the exact spot it was, as the market, popularly known as Boundary Market, is full of the usual buying and selling of necessities of life like foodstuff.
Located close to Ayeke Canal, the spot can be accessed from an area called Tolu, close to the Boundary Market.
From the first entrance, where various provision shops are located, Saturday Sun gathered that business starts as early as 5am till about 8am when market women start arriving.
Another round resumes at about 6pm till whenever they choose to close for the day.
In one of the reporter’s visits to the market, late in the evening, at about 6.30pm, one funny-looking young man, obviously a tout, came demanding to know what “this new face wants.”
Pretending to be one of them, in a hush tone, the journalist promised to pay him heavily if he could trace who was in custody of a 9320 model of Blackberry that was stolen by robbers earlier in the day.
To convince the tout, who later identified himself as Segun, N1,000 processing fee was given and he dashed off, with a promise to return in the next 10 minutes.
Segun actually returned but with a promise that he would be on the lookout for it as they were “still expecting goods.”
He admitted that most of the phones sold there are stolen.
In pidgin language, he said: “Na our boys dey bring these product after the day’s job. See the blackberry wey I dey use for market, na N100,000, but for here them sell am N10,000. No be say na so them dey sell am oh, I be area papa.”
When the reporter returned to the spot the next morning at the instance of Segun who called, series of phones were displayed, including a 9320 model of Blackberry phone.
When the reporter claimed that the one available was not the exact phone, Segun asked: “You fit describe the thief? May be the guy na new hand for this area.”
After describing what the thief could look like, Segun insisted that the thief does not patronize them at Kasuwa Market.
He was well compensated for his efforts, with the promise that he would call as soon as he spots anyone that fits the description.
Meanwhile, residents and some market men and women who spoke with Saturday Sun, appealed to Nigerians and the police to help stop all the criminal activities that go on in that area with impunity.
One of the market women, known as Mama Ibeji, lamenting, said the area has been under the control of criminals who rob at night and turn around to extort them during the day.
Mama Ibeji sid: “It is no longer news. We market people are at the mercy of these criminals. If the police can come and raid this area, it will be a serious relief.”
On why they have not reported those acts to the police, Mama Ibeji said: “Some of the buyers are security men. They come with the excuse that they want to buy fairly used phones and any other thing that is available. If they do not find it offensive or illegal, who am I to walk into trouble by reporting them? They will surely know because they have their men everywhere. If they kill here, nobody would look for you. I have to survive, if not I should have relocated a long time ago.”
Another person who identified himself as Chief Orji said that several anonymous petitions have been written to security agencies to rid the market of criminals.
Orji said: “They hawk hard drugs at will. If the NDLEA (National Drug Law Enforcement Agency) decides to visit this place, they will surely have a major breakthrough. We the residents live in fear because of the existence of that spot. Sometime ago, my brother was robbed at gunpoint along Apapa Road. They took his Blackberry phone and ipad. We had given up on the items. Then the next day, I saw one of them at about 6pm trying to sell that particular phone. I confronted them and ended up being beaten up. I was advised to buy the phone back. But by the time I came back the next day, they had sold it. It’s a terrible area and I pray that the Nigeria police will help us restore sanity in Ajegunle, especially that spot.”
On what the police has done about this development, a senior police officer, who pleaded that his name should not be mentioned, said that police has constantly raided the area and arrested such criminals.
The police officer said: “Ajegunle is an over-populated area, full of jobless youths. The women breed children like pigs with no reasonable source of livelihood. So, these children end up in the streets as touts and prostitutes. NDLEA should also be involved as hard drugs are sold freely in that market on a daily basis.”
When contacted, the Lagos State Police Command spokesperson, Ngozi Braide, said that the Nigeria police would stop at nothing to rid Lagos of such miscreants.
Braide advised Lagosians to desist from patronising such people because of the price as any stolen good can still be found and the buyer could get in trouble for buying such product.
Source: Sun News
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