‘We were beaten silly by robbers’

[Mirror]

Wasiu Jimoh (not real names), a popular printer in Shomolu area of Lagos State, and a client of his are currently recuperating at different hospitals in the state after suspected robbers gave them the beating of their lives and dispossessed them of their valuables.

Wasiu had reportedly been engaged in verbal assault with the said client after he reportedly failed to deliver a job he was given at the appointed time.

So, the client reportedly decided to stay all night with Wasiu, and two other apprentices, in his workshop to ensure that the job was delivered following day. Wasiu and his client (name withheld) were then keeping vigil on the job last Thursday when robbers invaded the workshop.

Around 1:00a.m, when Wasiu's printing machine was in full blast and the two men joining hands to collate the printed copies, a loud bang was heard by the door of the workshop.

Though Wasiu had securely locked the entrance door to the press, he however left ajar one of the windows. Not knowing who the knockers were, Wasiu reportedly walked towards the window to see who they were.

"I saw some men holding torch lights at the entrance of the press and I replied them that I am a printer and not doing illegal work. They barked at me to open the door but since I saw that they were clad in jeans and blue T-shirts that looked like police cardigans.

They told me that they were policemen on routine patrol of the area and they insisted that I should open the door for them. I still refused and told them that I was not doing illegal work in my press. "Then one of them brought out a shot gun and pointed it at me saying, 'do you think we are playing with you?' I then went to open the door for them," Wasiu said.

Once they were inside the press, the suspected robbers gave Wasiu the beating of his life for not responding to their orders early enough. One of the apprentices was reportedly hit on his head with the gun because he would not cooperate with them.

The robbers reportedly carried assorted double barrel guns as well as shot guns. At that stage, the robbers asked that all four men submit all that they had on them. To the surprise of the robbers, the four men claimed they were not with money and this angered the robbers the more. Apart from forcing some of the safes there open, they reportedly unleash terror on all of them.

A neighbour of Wasiu, identified as Adeoye, in a chat with Saturday Mirror, claimed that the robbers almost killed the four men but for Providence. Narrating his experience of the attack, Adeoye, who lives opposite the press, claimed that his elder brother narrowly escaped the robbers' attack. According to Adeoye, "I went out of our house around 1:00a.m, and saw my brother who told me to move inside saying that he was hearing some strange noise from inside the press opposite us. We later knew that the noise was the sounds of the people the robbers were beating.

I had no choice but to run back inside as advised but we were all restless until the noise abated. "By the time we got to the press, we saw able bodied men wriggling in pains inflicted on them by the robbers.

We had to rush them to the hospital to save their lives." In the end, the robbers only made away with the mobile phone handsets of all occupants of the press and some cash." The matter was however reported at Alade Polcie Station the following day. A source at the station confirmed the story, but claimed that investigations were on going.