Sunday, June 14, 2009

‘Everyone for himself, God for us all’ must have been at the back of the minds of the armed robbers who went into an hospital to perpetrate their criminal acts on Friday. Oluwatoyin Malik writes on how these robbers jettisoned the idea of oneness that a gang should exhibit by pilfering and hiding from their loot for individual possession.?


Some robbers are showing that, indeed, stealing runs in their blood and has become part and parcel of their lives. If not, how would armed robbers who are known to sometime even swear to an oath of loyalty and unity, go on a ‘street show’ but with the intent to still cheat on one another by keeping part of the spoils to themselves individually without others knowing?


Unbelievable as it may seem, this was what played out on Wednesday, June at Teju Specialist’s Hospital, Ring Road, Ibadan, Oyo State when six armed young men struck at the hospital around . p.m. From the doctor to the patients to the ward maids and nurses, the robbers who were all armed with long and short guns dispossessed those in the hospital, moving round the wards and rooms individually and with strict warning to their victims not to reveal to their fellow robbers what they collected.


According to the doctor who was on duty that night, he was in the consulting room seeing patients. A couple had come in with their two kids who were ill with the younger one to be admitted. While the other was being treated to leave for home and had the dad with her, the mother was with the very ill one who she took upstairs for admission.


“All of a sudden, I started hearing ‘where is the doctor? Where is the doctor?’ Since that is common when there is an emergency, I thought a case had been brought in that needed my attention. I made to stand up to see what was happening when three men just barged in and all pointed guns at me. They ordered me to kneel down and asked for my phones. My laptop was on the table and they took it along with my phones. They asked for the Managing Director of the hospital but I told them he was not around. They did not believe and asked me to lead them to his office upstairs.


“When we got there, they asked me to knock quietly. I did but there was no response. That was how one of them used his shoulder to shove the door twice and it gave way. They said I should show them the safe but I told them I just started work in the hospital.


“They ordered me to lie flat on the sofa in the office while they started ransacking everywhere, breaking drawers open. After a while, one of them spoke and asked me to stand up. I saw he was the only one left with me while the two others were nowhere to be found. He was stuffing some money into his pockets from an envelope. He then asked me not to reveal to others that he saw money and that if I do his bidding, he would spare me.


“He marched me downstairs again and took me back to the consulting room where others had been ordered to lie flat. The armed robbers then shut the door and left. After a while, we noticed quietness and I stood up to discover they had gone. They were so brisk in what they came to do and they did not spend more than to minutes. I called the MD and he alerted the police,” the doctor narrated.


While the armed robbers took the doctor upstairs and one of them was left with him, others were busy moving from one room to the other robbing patients who were on admission and were critically ill.


One of the patients who spoke with the Tribune was a young woman who was on drips. The woman who refused to disclose her identity said she was on the sick bed with her five-month-old baby placed beside her while another woman whose child was about to be admitted was also sitting with her when a nurse ran in, saying she saw some people coming in who she suspected to be armed robbers. She said the nurse asked for a change of dress so that she could remove her uniform to avoid being spotted as a staff by the robbers.


According to the patient who also happened to be a nursing staff of the hospital, “I gave her a dress and she quickly removed her uniform, put her phone in the drug chest and ran to hide herself in the toilet.


“Few seconds after, we heard footsteps and one of the armed robbers came in and announced his presence asking us to kneel down. He was in suit, face uncovered and fair in complexion with Igbo accent. The woman with me quickly went on the floor while I made an attempt to get up from the bed, but the armed robber stopped me, saying I should stay there since I am a patient. I used one cloth to cover my baby on the bed and he asked for what was under the cloth. I said it was my baby. He told me to remove the cloth and he saw that it was truly my baby.


“Before he came in, I had removed my chain and wedding ring and hid it somewhere. He saw my bag and said I should bring it. I gave him and he used his gun to raise it while he used the other hand to search through.


News -- Robbers rob one another as they attack hospital in Ibadan