Motorcycle theft returns with a bang.
2 min read
The act of stealing motorcycles from where they are parked especially during events may have fully returned in both Njaba and Isu LGAs with a bang. In the last couple of days, Umuaka Times reporters have received phone calls concerning such criminal activities in town.
First was a woman who went for shopping at Afor Umuaka and parked her motorcycle in front of a commercial building in the market. After she was done with her shopping, she came out but could not find her motorcycle. She assumed someone had re-parked it properly for her but it later became crystal clear to her that her motorcycle had been stolen. She wept helplessly.
On May 17, 2024, during a burial ceremony in Uba, a Christian mother who went to pay a condolence visit to the bereaved family came out and discovered that her motorcycle had been stolen from where it was parked. While speaking to Umuaka Times reporters, she disclosed that it cost her children N950,000 to buy the motorcycle and she had just used it for only 3 months.
Two days after the ugly incident, a motorcycle was yet again stolen from St Mary’s Catholic Church during a Church service.
From Umuaka Times investigations, this criminal act affects the customers of UBA Umuaka outlet. Umuaka Times was reliably informed that such ugly incident regularly occurs among the bank customers who park their motorcycles outside the premises of the bank.
Stealing motorcycles from where they are parked may perhaps be described as a “new” criminal trend in the locality. What has always occurred in the community is snatching of motorcycles at gunpoint by dare devil armed robbers. It appears motorcycle snatching is somehow relaxed for now but not fully jettisoned by some criminally minded youths.
Some of the people who spoke with Umuaka Times disclosed that they did not bother reporting such incidents to the police because that would yield no positive results. Concerning the bank customers, the DPO of Njaba Police Division confirmed that only one case of motorcycle theft had so far been reported to the station.
A top security official who did not want his name mentioned advised motorcycle owners to be extremely careful of where they park their motorcycles while attending events. “If it will be better for them to visit such places via other means, I will support them because almost every motorcycle now is sold either close to or more than a million Naira.”
Findings have also shown that none of the motorcycles both snatched or stolen from where they were parked had so far been found.
