CCTV Footage of Armed Lekki Car Vandalism Sparks Public Outrage and Demands for Forensic Overhaul

 

LAGOS, Nigeria — A wave of public anger and unease has swept across social media after the release of a chilling CCTV video showing a gang of heavily armed men systematically vandalising vehicles parked within a gated estate in Lekki Phase 1, Lagos. The footage, dated March 7, 2025, was released nearly a month later by Tope Fasua, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu, via his verified Facebook page.

The video, captured at dawn and sourced from a victim of the incident, portrays the suspects—described by Fasua as “smart-looking guys armed to the teeth”—operating with unnerving calm and precision. The men, whose faces were tactically concealed, appeared to have intimate knowledge of the estate’s layout, raising suspicions of insider collaboration.

“This video I got from a victim of very organised crime,” Fasua wrote. “These are armed robbers who also stripped cars somewhere in Lekki 1. They were caught on CCTV but are probably still at large. I hope they are apprehended.”

The suspects were seen dismantling car parts, believed to be from high-end vehicles, including Toyota Land Cruisers and Lexus models—popular targets for black-market spare part sales. One of the more unnerving elements in the video was how the criminals shifted the CCTV camera upwards, likely to avoid capturing identifying images—an act some commentators cited as evidence of prior knowledge of the estate’s security infrastructure.

The footage has since gone viral, igniting widespread concern and debate among Nigerians. A recurring theme in the responses was the perceived ineffectiveness of estate security and the limited capacity of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to conduct thorough forensic investigations.

Dapo Kale, one of many to weigh in online, lamented the lack of structured crime scene analysis in Nigeria. “If the police had collected fingerprints from the crime scene and scanned them through databases like BVN or NIN, some of the suspects might already be in custody,” he argued. “Some things aren’t rocket science.”

Others suggested the robbery bore the hallmarks of internal sabotage. “I suspect there’s a collaborator who is an insider,” wrote Tunde Alabi, pointing to the way the robbers avoided direct camera angles and manipulated the footage. “By the way, why was there no security around?” he asked rhetorically.

Commenters like Wisdom E. Nwansi took the conversation a step further by interrogating the demand driving such crimes. “Who is buying these parts? These thieves wouldn’t be stealing them if there wasn’t a market,” he said, drawing attention to the systemic rot in Nigeria’s black-market economy, including practices at the nation’s ports.

Security expert and resident advocate Nnaemeka F. Onyegbule urged luxury estates to stop treating security as a cosmetic feature. “Employ real security personnel—not just gate men—and invest in modern tech: surveillance systems, motion sensors, trip alarms, and forensic tools. We’re not in the 90s anymore,” he stated.

Reports suggest this is not an isolated incident in Lekki Phase 1. According to Bimbo Olarinde, who claimed to have reported similar crimes to the Maroko Police Station, the modus operandi remains consistent. “They come around 4:30 a.m., when guards are asleep. This isn’t their first time.”

Some citizens, like Michael Fatunase and Adewuyi Adeshina Nasir, echoed the call for a tech-driven crime response. They advocated deploying motion-detection alarms and using Nigeria’s biometric systems—like the Bank Verification Number (BVN) and National Identification Number (NIN)—to trace perpetrators.

Another voice, Francis Denedo, raised red flags about the calibre of weapons seen in the footage. “These were pistols—not common items. These are professional thieves,” he claimed. “If the estate has security guards, they need to be questioned seriously.”

As investigations into the Lekki vandalism continue, the incident has sparked a larger national conversation about the nexus between organised crime, institutional weaknesses, and the urgent need for a technology-forward, forensic-based policing system in Nigeria. For now, the robbers remain at large—but the call for reform is louder than ever.