Armed robbers broke into the residence of Olanrewaju Suraju, the Chairman of the Human and Environmental Development Agenda Resource Centre, on Monday, stealing a Toyota Corolla 2014 automobile and other valuables.
Five phones, including a Samsung phone, two iPhones, and two iPads; two Macbook pro laptops, a Dell laptop; jewelry, ATM cards, car keys, bank tokens, and workplace documents were among the items carried away.
In a statement released on Tuesday, HEDA’s Executive Secretary, Sulaimon Arigbabu, said the perpetrators broke into Suraju’s residence around 2:15 a.m. on Monday.
He explained that the perpetrators threatened to kill Suraju and were highly armed with pistols, knives, and other hazardous weapons.
According to Arigbabu, the HEDA boss was physically beaten, along with his wife, and was hospitalized as a result of the incident.
According to him, the assailants who were caught on CCTV camera breached the Estate’s Security and burgled the security features in Suraju’s house with sophisticated tools.
Currently, both the intent and the extent of the damage cannot be fully estimated yet, Arigbabu noted.
“The assailants, who invaded only Mr. Suraju’s home out of other 220 buildings in the estate, collected all valuable items in the house and coerced Mr Suraju to provide all his security details including phone passwords, bank log-in details, laptops passwords, among others. The assailants then immediately gained access to his email, phone numbers including WhatsApp and other messaging platforms as well as bank platforms.
“To be sure, at the earlier moment after the invasion, the assailants were found deleting some of the CCTV footage through Mr Suraju’s phone before the camera was switched off by the family. However, the matter has been reported at the relevant Divisional Police Station in Lagos State.” He added,
“It is important to alert members of the public and all friends, families and well-wishers of the Surajus and HEDA not to act on any solicitation or strange broadcast/emails purportedly from Mr and Mrs Suraju. Any such message should be discountenanced for now.
“The development is both shocking and traumatizing for the Suraju family and the organisation. HEDA expressed worry that the invasion may not be unconnected with the anti-corruption work of HEDA which Mr Suraju has been at the forefront.
“It is no news that corrupt elements both within and outside the government have continuously conspired to persecute the organisation and its Chairman, Mr Suraju, for blowing whistles and exposing perpetrators of various acts of grand corruption against Nigeria.
“Therefore, considering that the assailants did not only steal and inflict injury, they also threatened to kill Mr Suraju, but this attack may also be another dimension to the persecution of Mr Suraju by the corrupt individuals especially since all previous attempts to bring him down have failed.”
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