Car snatching on the increase – Crime statistics
By Toyosi Ogunseye
Published: Sunday, 19 Apr 2009
[b]There has been an increase in the cases of car robberies in different parts of the country in the past week, crime statistics obtained by SUNDAY PUNCH has shown.

Last week alone, a total of seven cars were stolen by armed men in Lagos and Ogun states.

Last Tuesday, four cars, including a black Honda CRV jeep, were snatched by armed men at Ogudu, Lagos. The driver of the jeep was said to be on his way home when the thieves, who were in a convoy of three stolen cars, double crossed his vehicle.

Also last Thursday, two Honda Accord cars with number plates LF 330 AAA and PT 133 AAA, were seized at Aguda, Surulere, Lagos, and Sango-Ota, Ogun State, respectively. A Toyota Avensis car with number plate DU 792 APP was snatched at the Apapa area of Lagos on Friday.

While the police in Ketu, Lagos, recovered the black jeep on Wednesday, the Honda cars were recovered by a patrol team at the Seme border on Friday. The Toyota car was recovered on Saturday morning by the same team.

According to Musa Kimo, an Assistant Commissioner of Police and coordinator of the police border patrol, South-West Zone, Seme, the Honda cars were recovered around 1510 hours when his men, who were on duty, sighted the vehicles being driven in a suspicious manner at the Coca-Cola junction, Seme, Benin Republic.

He said, ”The suspects attempted to bribe our men with N10,000. Those arrested appear to be ‘crossers.‘ Discreet investigation and interrogation will reveal the actual suspects.”

While the occupants of the green Honda car with number plate PT 133 AAA escaped, the men driving the second car with number plate LF 330 AAA identified as Amed Wassi and Pauline Atemenu, were arrested.

The suspects told the police that they were given the car by one Idowu to drive across the border. They claimed that they did not know that the car was stolen. ”Idowu buys electrical equipment from Alaba, Lagos and sells them in Benin Republic. We usually help him to carry his goods across the border. On Friday, he asked us to help him drive the car across the border and we obliged him,” they claimed.[/b]The occupants of the Toyota car also abandoned the car and escaped when they were accosted by the police. The owner of the car, a medical doctor, when contacted by the police, said the car was snatched from him as he was driving out of his Apapa residence on Friday morning. According to the doctor, after the robbers seized the car they robbed his family of N180,000, jewellery and other valuables.

Kimo called on Nigerians to give the police information on criminals and their hideouts.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20090419230781

With increasing frequency over the past year, motorists on Nigerian roads have found themselves unwilling co-travellers in the back seat of their own vehicles, sandwiched in on both sides by heavily armed car-jackers who typically shoot their way through police roadblocks while kidnapping the owners of the stolen vehicles along with the target cars.  Often in convoys, the cars ultimately head to the border for recycling into the black market.     Abducted this way, many motorists on Nigerian roads quietly vanish from physical existence, unlike the cars they drove that get resurrected with new ownership papers and paint.

To anyone wishing to reduce the odds of getting ambushed and kidnapped by car-snatching gangs prowling Nigerian roads, remember that your escape options dwindle the slower you drive, such that you are literally a "sitting duck" the minute you allow your car to come to a complete stop.   Keep a generous distance between your vehicle and  the car in front of you, and if the occupants of that car are sitting un-naturally motionless while the driver checks you every few moments in the rear-view mirror, the trap is nearly closed, and you will need to take FAST evasive action by swerving to either side of the ambushers car, whereupon you should summon all the horsepower your automobile's engine can muster to speed you away from the kill zone before the gunmen's car can slow down enough for them to leap out, take aim and open fire on you.