Seasons Greetings

Been inundated with helpful maintenance staff coming over to the house to see if there are any problems. Haven't seen these guys all year and now here they are. Yep, it's Christmas time, and everybody needs a gift. (locally known as "dash")

The gardeners want to be rewarded for "pruning" my tree. Well, it didn't need it and their treatment consisted of hacking off most of the branches so I passed up the opportunity. One of the gate guards yesterday suggested an amount equal to 6 months salary would be welcome. Some strange carpenter that I'd never seen before knocked at the door inquiring if anything needed doing. I almost said yes, since there is a cabinet door that is falling off, but then realized the smallest bill I had was N1,000 which would be way too much, so I demurred.

Last week while walking along the expressway coming back from buying some fruit, a guy sidled up to me and suggested that I needed to "help" him. Since we were near the used car lot, I pointed and asked "Would you like a car?".
"Yes, sure" he replied.
So I asked him, pointing, "which one? Would the hummer be OK?".
"Yes, sure, that would be fine." He replied as I turned and walked away. I was pleased to hear some bystanders laughing as I left.

I'll probably wait until after Christmas to take that walk again. The next day there was a bank robbery and shoot out in the same area. Here's the newspaper article that ran the next day. (Note how the police arrested the bystanders ).

14 invade bank with bombs, explosives

THERE was palpable fear in Ajah area of Lagos State at the weekend as policemen from the state police command engaged a gang of heavily armed robbers in a heavy shootout in a foiled robbery attempt.

A gang of about fourteen armed robbers had invaded a branch of a new generation bank in Ikota area of Ajah with sophisticated weapons including home-made bomb and other explosives.

The robbers had successfully destroyed all the barricades leading to the bank and were about forcing their way into the bank premises when policemen from Ajah Divisional Police Station stormed the scene of the attempted robbery.

The Sunday Tribune gathered that all of the robbers except an unlucky one escaped through a speed boat which was stationed at the bank of the lagoon.

The robbers in an attempt to block the police from getting to the bank had bombed a red bus which they might have snatched after disengaging from their speed boat and used it to block both sides of the road.

The Divisional Police Officer in charge of the station on seeing the sophistication of the weapons being used by the robbers called for reinforcement from the Area Command and an Armoured Personnel Carrier was drafted to the scene. The arrival of the armoured carrier led to a serious gun exchange between the robbers and policemen as heavy shootings vibrated round the entire Ikota community in Ajah.

Some people were reportedly injured in the incident but the image maker in charge of the state police command, Frank Mba, while speaking on the foiled robbery with the Sunday Tribune denied that anybody was injured in the gun duel.

Forty five people, who were at the river bank who saw the armed robbers disengaging from the boat ,have since been arrested for failing to report to the police for prompt response.