The Mile-Two Badagry expressway has been a nightmare for a huge number of lagosians who have been victims of robbers, particularly for those who use the route at night or in the early hours of the morning.
The road is characterized with heavy traffic, extremely bad roads and most of all, robbery. This robbery is said to have plagued commuters of that vicinity and have claimed quite a number of lives of victims who try to put up resistance.
The robbery occurs starting anytime from 8pm at night, and often times, in the early hours of the morning.
Toheed Fashola, popularly called Epo, one of the most dreaded traffic robbery suspects, who has for years terrorized commuters of Satellite Alakija area have been gunned down by the police in shoot-out.
The tragic death of the notorious robber have amazingly brought jubilations to Lagosians.
Vanguard reports that Fashola along side another suspected gang member, were killed during an operation, while a third member was arrested after sustaining gunshot injuries.
According to details revealed by the Police, Fashola and his gang usually came from Ajegunle to operate at satellite, where they usually take advantage of the grown bush in the middle of the express as hideouts.
“They would station their motorcycles at the Orile lane, cross over to the lane designated for Mile commuters, which is usually busy with vehicular movement on a snail pace owing to bad road and long queue of trucks.” Vanguard reported.
Sequel to the disturbing complaints of commuters over several attacks, the Commisioner of Police, Lagos State Police Command, CP Zubairu Mauzu, directed his officers to attend to the situation which they did. Some arrests were made and commuters had a break from their horror.
The gang changed strategies and began operating at earlier hours of the morning and continued dispossesing people of their properties and inflicting pain, both mentally and physically.
However, at about 5am on Tuesday, a Oti led a team od police men, stormed Alakija and intercepted Epo and his gang as they were robbering passengers of a commercial bus, Vanguard reports.
A passenger in the bus who spoke with Crime Guard, explained that,
“When they sighted the police, they jumped over the median and ran into the bush by the rail lane from where they opened fire on the Police. Their intention was to cross to the Orile lane, where their motorbikes were parked and zoom off. But during the exchange of fire, two of them died, while the third one was shot in the leg”.
This brought huge relief to commuters of that area, as some of them could identify the dead robbers.
READ ALSO: Watch out for Superstars Usher, Alicia Keys, Miley Cyrus in Lagos
One said;
“this particular one killed my brother. We were returning from market in February and were trapped in traffic at Dantata, at about 9pm. His gang started robbing. When they got to our car, I handed over my phone to them. My late brother, Nnamdi, bent down to pick his phone that was under the seat, only for this one ( pointing at Fashola) to shoot him in the neck. He died five days later at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, Ikeja”.
Another resident, Mr Udoh Akpan, a retired Customs officer, said the same suspect stabbed his wife.
In his words, “They accosted us at Alakija, shattered our windscreen and asked us to bring all we had. My wife wanted to remove her identification card from her bag before handing it over to them but this one ( Fashola) stabbed her in the shoulder saying she was wasting their time. Since then, the Police have been on his trail”.