Beware of The "Okada" Motorcycle Thieves

Motorcycle which has become very popular means of road transportation in all cities in Nigeria goes by various names across the country. In Lagos it is called “Okada” or “Bike”. As a means of transportation, it easily maneuvers into places that some cars and buses can hardly reach thus making it a must ride to people who live deep inside the streets when they leave home early in the morning to get to their bus stops or late at night when returning home. This important function besides, some of the riders have turned these bikes to easy escape vehicles when on criminal escapades. They are variously used to rob, kidnap, snatch bags and so on. This has lead to various state governments banning their operations to a time-band daily. This notwithstanding, they have continued to be used as tools of crimes.

Although I am aware of the use of motorcycles for crimes of various kinds, I little envisaged that I would be a victim in a most humiliating manner. It was a Friday. On closing from the days work, I was invited by a senior friend to have a drink with him at Oregun in Lagos. I joined him at about 8pm. After about two and half hours, I decided to take my leave since I did not go with my car. On getting to Ojota on my way home, I discovered I wasn’t with a pack I took along to the spot where we had drinks. I decided to take a bike back to the place. When I disembarked I gave a 1000 naira note to the rider since I had no change with me. I had hardly given him the money when he zoomed off. I watched until the tail light of his motorcycle disappeared.

Though I was able to recover the pack from a Good Samaritan who picked it up, I went home very dejected that I could be so easily dispossessed of my money. Something told me that the rider must be a robber or a hardened criminal who may just be looking for an opportunity to operate when I fell into his hands. He is likely to be carrying a weapon too. The lessons I learnt which I want readers to apply is that if you would collect change from an “Okadaman” he has to switch off his engine before you give him money or get some change handy so you do not expose the fact that you have some good money with you if our are to board a bike at any time, particularly at night. If all I had was the 1000 naira at that time of day, I would have been in a more precarious situation trying to get home that night. Do not be a victim.

Don't Be An Accomplice To Criminals

So many people have become accomplices to crimes they hardly had a faintest idea about their design, planning and execution by their carelessness, loquaciousness and stupidity.

At a seminar for bank Chief Security Officers held at the University of Lagos, Nigeria in which I was involved as a facilitator, one of the attendees told us a story of how account holders of a particular bank had their deposits depleted through criminal activities. According to the bank security chief, one Office Assistant with the bank had been a regular beneficiary of beer, pepper soup and other delicacies at a drinking joint he visits regularly, from people he hardly knew before then. This Office Assistant, we were told, got his bill paid one day by these strangers, some young men who told him they just liked his person. Over time, they became friends and they kept on paying his bills for drinks and chops. In the course of time, when the Office Assistant told them he worked in a bank they pretended they never knew where he worked. When the “friends” felt they had gained his confidence, they made a seemingly harmless request, for the Office Assistant to do them a favor. He is to just plug a Flash Drive they would give to him into any computer used in his bank before resumption of work and to unplug it at the end of the day and return to them. He did as they requested. With the information copied into the flash drive, the criminals gained access to several accounts of depositors with the bank and withdrew money running into millions or Naira.

While in this case the Office Assistant may be aware of the implication of his action but blinded by the benefits he had been getting from his “friends” and the expected rewards, there are cases where people help criminals with information without knowing. There are several instances of people who talk about their places of work, how rich their bosses are, the lifestyle of their bosses, when salaries are paid in their companies, the arrival of certain people they know from abroad, some projects those close to them are engaged in and some issues they consider harmless but which criminals further probe to get more information to strike. Sometimes, all the person was trying to do was to show off how well his/her organization is doing or how connected he/she is to powerful people, not knowing that somebody with a criminal mind would use that information to advantage.

Beware from whom you accept gifts. Haven’t you heard that there is no free lunch? Also, beware of what you say in public places or to close associates about your organization or about even those you know who are doing well. A criminal may just be around to pick that information and strike. That makes you an accomplice to the crime!