Posted by Omolola Awe, Apapa on
The residents of Apapa Government Reserved Area have expressed worries over the increase in crime rate in the area, following a prolonged outage in the community.
The residents of Apapa Government Reserved Area have expressed worries over the increase in crime rate in the area, following a prolonged outage in the community.
The Chairman of the Apapa GRA Residents Association, Mr. Olaniyi Yusuf, told our correspondent that the robbery rate in the area was indeed frightening but that it was not peculiar to Apapa.
Yusuf said there had been a blackout in the area for more that two weeks, but that the situation had been rectified as power supply had been restored.
He said the risk of robbery attacks was everywhere and could not be attributed to the outage in Apapa G.R.A.
Speaking also on behalf of the residents on Thursday, General Manager of the Apapa GRA Residents Association, Mr. Mike Egbayelo, said the increase in the rate of robbery could be traced to the rise in the number of hotels in the area.
Egbayelo noted that power supply in Badagry Road had been erratic for a long period, and which he attributed to a faulty transformer serving the area.
He gave several instances of burglary and car snatching in broad daylight, which had sometimes resulted in casualties when the victims refuse to give in easily.
Egbayelo reminded the Ministry of Physical and Urban Planning to stop granting approval to individuals who wanted to convert their residence to hotels and guesthouses, saying this was the major cause of robbery attacks.
Also speaking on the issue, Service Manager for Apapa NEPA District, Mr. Israel Olaseinde, noted that it was true that Badagry Road had experienced an unusual blackout for sometime due to a fault in the power transformer, but the situation had been rectified.
While Olaseinde claimed that the blackout was not the cause of the recent spate of robbery attacks, Olaseinde asked the people of the area to bear with them.
The Punch, Friday June 24, 2005