Over N30 million worth of goods were carted away by robbers at the Ikota Shopping Complex, which borders Victoria Garden City (VGC), Lekki Peninsula, Lagos.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Superior Mobile Investment Ltd and iClick Gadgets, Dr. Helen O. Eto, whose firm, HFP Engineering Ltd, runs the shopping complex, said the robbers struck at the complex that has about 1,850 shops in the early hours of March 7, 2023.
Finesse Security Ltd guards claimed that they forgot to lock the gate of the facility, allowing the hoodlums to cart away about N30 million phones and other goods from Mrs. Eto’s freshly restocked shop.
Lamenting her ordeal to the police in Ajah and Panti, Yaba, Mrs. Eto said: “We took bank loans for the business plus our life savings all of which are gone. This is a wicked plan against us in our old age with children still in school, other dependents and various bills.
“We plead that the police should help us to get to the bottom of the looting, to save us from early deaths as our blood pressures (BPs) have shot up sharply because this is our main source of livelihood. A list of the goods looted from the shop was/is attached to my statements at the Ajah Police Station and SIB, Yaba.”
Chairman, Editorial Board of The Daily Times and a media consultant, Omokioja Julius Eto, corroborated his wife’s account. Eto, a former Associate Editor of The Guardian and Editor-in-Chief of The Trumpet, said: “The robbery is shocking because the security gate is inaccessible even to shop owners at night, our shop is just a stone’s throw from the gate, and it would have taken, at least, two hours to cut through the shop’s security system.
“This makes us strongly see the guards as the main suspects. We were not immediately notified by the security firm or the facility managers (HFP) of the robbery, which we only got to be aware of at about 8.20am, through one of our employees.”
Eto added: “Since the break-in on March 7 till today, March 30, Finesse Security Ltd has not called to sympathise with us, but has been evading our calls and texts to its MD, whom we learnt travelled abroad after the robbery.
“We have been doing everything to support the police investigation despite our predicament, and hope they will bring the culprits to justice.”