Beware: Some mad persons are criminals

WE see them every day at strategic places. Sometimes, they are seen in church premises, school gates, market places, on the roads, mention it. Armed robbers patronise some of them, they work together. It’s either they go for operation with their gang or they harbour stolen property for armed robbers.
Some of them harbour guns for the criminals. Some are ritualists, some kidnappers, while some of them are drug dealers who disguise themselves to be insane. You see them on the streets with bags stuffed with what no one knows.
In some towns, some of them stay in particular places steadily with different bags, especially big ‘Ghana Must Go’ stuffed with different kinds of things packed around them. They disguise as ‘mad persons’ so that people, especially security agents would not take note of the evils they commit.
Most people are so careless that they don’t bother to find out whether those ‘mad people’ they see around are truly mad or not. How could one explain a ‘mad man ‘communicating with a sane person on phone?
Sometime in November, 2017, at Otigba area of Enugu, Enugu State, a man, very normal, was seen handing over a mobile phone to a ‘ mad man’. The ‘mad man’ looked left,  looked right and felt that nobody  saw him,  he stretched his hand and collected the phone from the man and hurriedly put it into his pocket.
Some people saw what transpired but kept quiet. They felt it did not matter; that he was only but a ‘mad man’. But if one may ask, what would a mad man do with a mobile phone?
There was another incident that happened in a church. A mad man during a mass, in one of the Orthodox churches in Enugu, ran into the church with a heavy iron. As he was about rushing to the altar, security men in the church chased him away. What was a ‘mad man’ doing with a weapon in a church? All these happened with people paying little or no attention.
A police officer in Enugu, who chose to remain anonymous, told National Light a story of one ‘mad man’ that used to keep arms for armed robbers. On a tip-off, the fake mad man was monitored and one day, there was a raid of his territory,  a search of his bags was conducted and behold, guns were found in the bags.
In March this year, a man, Oyahere Johnson, 35, from Port Harcourt, pretended to be mad and was arrested with a toy pistol under the Eko Bridge, Lagos, following a tip-off by a motorcyclist around 11PM. The security agents rushed to the scene and saw the man hiding the gun in his trousers and trying to run away. He was arrested, searched and a black toy pistol just like Barreta pistol was found on him.  He said he had been using the toy gun to rob in the area.
In February, another fake mad man was arrested near Abule Egba Fly Over by the operatives of Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of Lagos State Police Command for robbery. He was also caught with stolen items.
Just recently, a ‘mad woman’ was arrested with decomposing corpses and other human parts under Cele Nicer Bridge, Ijanikin, Ojo, Lagos State. She said that sometimes, she posed as a sex worker to get victims for her human parts business, which she had been operating for nine years. If not that the woman was caught, who would ever believe a ‘mad person’ would be a business man or woman dealing in human parts or dead bodies?
The suspect, who was arrested alongside her accomplice, Emmanuel Gbenga, disclosed that some of her victims were men who she lured from hotels where she posed as a commercial sex worker.
Well, Folake as she was called said her customers usually parked on the bridge at night with their vehicles bonnets open, pretending that their vehicles had one fault or the other, unknown to people that they were waiting to get human parts.
According to her, her boys would be beneath the vehicle pretending to be working on the car to douse any suspicion and, in the process, hand over a nylon bag which contained huiman parts. She revealed that “whenever she failed to find preys to meet up with the demands of clients, she would dress up and head straight to any hotel of her choice at night.
Any man that picks her for the night becomes a prey as he would end up in her den, where his body parts were later harvested and sold off to waiting clients.” She confessed that once her hands touched someone, the person would lose his senses and follow her sheepishly.
National Light gathered that when Folake was being interrogated by the mob, she threw her phone into the bush. As they were looking for her phone, they discovered a tunnel where some decomposing corpses were found.
The bodies that were recovered from the tunnel were those of a baby that was less than three months old, a middle-aged man and a nine-year-old boy who was said to have been returning from holiday lesson, school uniforms, lunch boxes, school bags and adult clothes. Also recovered were two ‘Ghana Must Go bags containing foreign currencies and N1000 notes.
As expected, Lagos police command swung into action. Deputy Commissioner of Police, Operations, Mohammed Alli, alongside other policemen, visited the site.
Christian Nnaemeka, a final year student of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka who spoke to National Light  said the advise I want to give to people is that if they see mad people on the road, they should beat them and drive them away from the streets.
If not, those of them that are fake may kidnap children or even adults. The government should also drive them away from the streets. Mad people do not stay in the streets rather they stay in the bush. Some of them may be armed robbers.”
Okonkwo Emmanuel, a business man said; mad people are not supposed to be seen on the street. There is a place mad people stay (psychiatric hospital). It’s because people keep quiet that’s why they behave like that. Those of them that are caught should be used to sensitise people so that they will know that not all mad people are mad before you start talking of punishment to give them.