On Friday June 29th, 2024, about 10am , armed robbers  shot a rice seller at the Sango market in Ibadan Oyo state. The victim simply identified as Yusuf was waiting for a commercial motorcycle rider  to take him  from the Sango market to buy rice but he got the shock of his life when the rider ordered him to surrender the money in his possession, as he delayed the instruction, the suspected armed robber opened fire and shot him on his right hand and fled.

Eyewitnesses revealed that the armed robbers left Yusuf  writhing in pains . Help however came his way as he was rushed to a hospital.When our Correspondent visited the scene of the crime, a blood stain  was noticed on the road  where the shooting took place   while traders  and other motorists where seen   discussing the shooting  and also narrating incidences of crimes in the market and environs  .The traders said   the  recent armed robbery was coming barely one year after  a 19- year –  old man was allegedly shot dead  at the Elewure bus top Sango market .

The Elewure shooting is a stone throw to where Yusuf was shot. ’ The boy  they killed  is called Dada.  He was  selling soft drinks for his parents when he was  shot in the head in  broad day light . His killers fled after the shooting him.  ’’. A trader  Mama  Rashidat said .Another  trader Mummy Dayo   said ‘’ The family rushed Dada  to a nearby hospital but they said they could not handle such  emergency.

The family took him to the University Teaching hospital UCH.  The family deposited N300, 000 for the treatment and  went to borrow more money but after three days, Dada  died from the gunshot wound he sustained. ‘’The traders also recounted how  a middle aged man simply identified as Puff daddy was murdered in a gruesome manner in Sango market .The trader who simply identified herself as Mama Joy  said ‘’ Puff Daddy’s  girlfriend is my customer   but whenever she is coming to the market, she used to disguise herself as she is scared of the bad boys around who killed her boyfriend.

The way they murdered him was brutal. They shot and stabbed him all over his body until he gave up the ghost.’’Another trader   trader  Mama Muni said  ‘’ This is no news at all that the young men suspected to be cultists  and criminals hang around  at the railway at Elewure  and a spot  close to a popular beer parlour called Ghetto  in the market  where  these boys smoke hemp and sell illicit drugs .

Some of these bad  boys sleep  around shopping complexes  and in front of shops  at night.  Is it that the police  who have a van station directly in front of the major road in the market  do not notice the hemp smoking men and criminals hibernating in these blackspots  .

With all these crimes in Sango market, its high time the IGP intervenes because we do not understand why crimes will be occurring ? A regular customer in the market one  Lekan said ‘’  I am baffled  how they (police) look away from crimes in the market but they are interested in collecting  N500 from  petty traders . These policemen brag that there is nothing that can stop them from collecting the money as their CP is aware of what they do to keep the station running.

A particular policewoman come around every month to collect that illegal N500 money from those traders displaying their wares on the sidewalks and that is why when you take any case  against any trader in Sango market  and owner of shops in the area to the police station , you will be shocked that the police will not do justice to the case.

The IGP should look into this behavior by the police ’’ One of the traders  at the Sango market who  have since relocated her shop from the market gave the unpleasant hemp smoking situation as the reason she left the market .‘’ I have to leave after four years. My shop is close to the hideout of these hemp smoking men and despite all my efforts to make them relocate, they refused to move, What have we not used to chased them, we used police and the army still the boys will relocate for a while when they noticed that law enforcement agents are after them but shortly after, they will return  there again. I could not bear the heavy hemp smoking  and I had to relocate.  ‘’Investigations also reveal that in  July year last year ,  suspected cultists killed a young man at the Agbowo community in retaliation for a  cult leader’s  murder .

The Agbowo  community is under the Sango Division . Agbowo community is  opposite  the University of Ibadan and  quite a number of the  students and staff with their families live there .  A man simply identified as Ayo said ‘’The young man’s name is  Tayo. He was  shot  and left to bleed to death. His killing was in retaliation for the murder  of a cult leader cult  Esho (devil) who and his gang members were  in control of petty businesses around the Agbowo shopping complex  .

Since  Esho was brutally murdered and his intestines  was ripped out, his cult gang  succeeded in killing Tayo to avenge Esho.   He said ‘’ There is this guy called Dada , after the killing of Esho, Dada  has been the one   in charge of boys in Agbowo and he is the one allocating roadside  spaces  to petty  traders around  the Agbowo shopping complex. He collects as much as N50, 000 yearly to allow the traders to display their goods on pavements and walkways.

He has been arrested several times by the Sango police station but still  he is roaming about free. When another gang wants to take over the control of commerce in and around Agbowo shopping complex,  there is usually a supremacy fight which can lead to killing of rivals and disturbance of public  peace  ’’ Residents and traders in  Agbowo community also reveal how suspected cultists and robbers constitute a threat to them  over the supremacy battle to control petty businesses around the Agbowo shopping complex  .

Traders recounted how they fled  when cult gangs held rallies  to announce their presence. A trader , Abe said ‘’ Some cult boys masked up and they moved in a file along the streets. When residents and traders noticed that they were cultists, they quickly   closed their shops while others ran into their houses and bolted their doors. I ran into my shop and peeked from the window where I saw them in their number.

They were masked and walking in a procession from street to street without fear. I learnt that those boys were the new initiates into the cult. This was about 6pm. They did this for about three days and we were so afraid and the police did not stop them’’ Traders in Agbowo community are not spared from the activities of robbers as their shops and stores are burgled at will.

One Mama John narrated how her footwear business was affected badly after suspected robbers broke into their store and stole her goods. ‘’ I am sad. I got the goods like yesterday and by the next day  when I went to the store to bring them out to sell, I found out the goods have been stolen’’. Another trader in Agbowo said ‘’ My shop was looted. They stole everything. I had to start all over . They came and stole the goods  again. We have  gotten  a security personnel  whom we pay monthly to secure our shops as the police rarely come around to provide security .

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