A businesswoman, Linda Ekwulomu, has been traumatised after burglars looted her goods after breaking into her shop at Cele Bus Stop, along the Apapa Oshodi Expressway in Lagos State.

The businesswoman, while lamenting over the development, said she lost goods worth N3m to the burglars, adding that this was the third time burglars would break into her shop and cart away her goods.

Speaking with our correspondent, Ekwulomu said goods including iPhones, computers, and other products were stolen from her shop, adding that louts in the area where her shop is located were responsible for her ordeal.

She said, “My shop here at the plaza has been burgled over three times by burglars and I have lost a lot of my phones which are for sale to them. But this particular one is something that I cannot stomach again. I just bought phones and other gadgets worth over N3m and look at what I am facing again, robbers have entered my shop again and carted away my market. The case was reported at the Okota Police Station.”

A trader, Nnnadi Oluchukwu, whose shop is located opposite Ekwulomu’s shop, confirmed that his neighbour’s shop had been burgled on three separate occasions.

He said, “In this area, there are many people who just walk around looking for what to steal. We even have people that they call ‘Bolas’ in the area that steal when they see the opportunity to do it. They broke into that lady’s shop and stole phones which I knew that they would sell for cheap prices.

“Another thing is that when you look at this area, there are too many louts around and they are all a security risk. How would one be able to protect his or her property when the louts are much? That’s the problem that we are facing here. You would see people who don’t have anywhere to go but to hang around these premises. Why will such an incident not occur?”

The owner of the plaza where the theft happened, Olumuyiwa Jejeloye, told our correspondent he had been against having people with no purposeful intent at the plaza.

He said, “I have at many times had to pursue many of these boys who, under the guise of working for some transport company, indulge in crimes. They would smoke hard drugs and I know that these transport companies are not their employers.”

Contacted, the spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, told our correspondent that he had not been briefed,

adding that he would revert when he gets the details of the matter.

In this article