Media Rights Agenda (MRA) office in Lagos has been burgled and ransacked by a group of unidentified intruders who made away with nine laptop computers and other valuable equipment worth millions of naira.
A statement issued by the head of MRA’s Legal Department, Ms Obioma Okonkwo, made available to LEADERSHIP yesterday in Abuja, described the incident as a shocking and frightening attack on the organisation.
The statement said it was still trying to determine whether the action was simply a robbery incident or a more sinister effort to cripple MRA’s operations or access its records and information since only laptop computers and other digital tools and equipment were taken away.
Okonkwo explained that the incident took place sometime between the evening of Saturday, January 21 and the following morning, adding that the intruders apparently gained access into the office, which is a detached two-storey building (duplex) surrounded by a high perimeter brick fence, by climbing over a side fence into the compound, then cutting through the ceiling and smashing roofing material to enter one of the offices on the upper floor.
According to her, the “robbers” obviously could not breach the main door to the building on the ground floor, which is a reinforced security door, or any of the windows in the building, all of which are fitted with protectors made of iron rods, which was why they had to enter through the roof and ceiling.
Saying that the intruders took away nine laptop computers, external hard drives used by MRA to back up documents on its computers, Internet modems and routers, some documents, and petty cash, Ms Okonkwo noted how they gained access to the building and left could have constrained them in what they were able to remove from the office but that the organization was not ruling out the possibility that they were not burglars and that their primary objective was MRA’s information and communication devices as many other valuable assets in the office were not stolen.
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