Gang of robbers target IT drivers

Dar es Salaam. Security concerns loom over a gang of armed robbers impersonating traffic police officers and targeting drivers of in-transit (IT) vehicles coming from the Dar es Salaam Port.

In the past two weeks alone, reports suggest the gang has victimised at least five IT drivers between Ubungo and Mbezi-Kimara.

Police said they will look into the matter.

Dar es Salaam Special Police Zone Commander Lazaro Mambosasa said that the police had not received an official report yet.

According to some of the victims who spoke to The Citizen at the weekend, the robbers are taking advantage of the traffic jam that has resurfaced along the busy stretch.

Drivers who have been robbed are mostly from Zambia, Zimbabwe, DR Congo and Malawi.

According to one of the victims, the cop imposters are stopping IT vehicles and accusing the drivers of having committed all kinds of traffic offences. “They are producing laminated identity cards to convince drivers that they are real police officers in plainclothes, and in most cases accusing us of having failed to stop at a pedestrian crossing,” said Dumisani Mpofu, a Zimbabwean driver who last week said he was robbed of $300 and an unspecified amount of shillings.

Narrating his ordeal to The Citizen, Dumisani said four people approached his vehicle when he was in a traffic jam at Kimara Mwisho, produced an ID that suggested they were police officers and ordered that he pull over.

“I did as they instructed because they produced an ID and I thought they were genuine policemen, and the fact that it was not very late – around 8pm – made it easier for me to believe them,” he said.

“Once the traffic started moving they told me to drive to the police station through a dusty service road just by the roundabout, to the left side of the road; I tried in vain to explain that I had not committed any offence but they would not listen to me. Instead, they threatened me saying I faced a fine of not less than Sh250,000,” he recalls.

Once they were off the main road, he said he was ordered to switch off the engine. He obliged, but did not remove the keys from the ignition switch; instead, he engaged the neutral gear and kept pressing the foot brake pedal.

That decision later helped him to escape.“We had stopped on a steep uphill, and it was a bit dark. That’s when all hell broke loose. The three people seated at the back suddenly produced machetes and ordered me to give them all the money I had,” he said.

“It suddenly occurred to me that this was a robbery, so I took the $300 and a bunch of shillings I had and gave them. I told them it’s all I had. They were not convinced.”

“So, the three ‘gentlemen’ at the back got off the car and waited behind opened doors. But the guy in front started searching my pockets. At that very moment I knew I had to act fast, because I had more money in my wallet.”

“I suddenly released the footbrake forcing the vehicle to move and hitting the trio standing outside; the commotion took the other man by surprise, which forced him to jump off the car.

A miraculous escape, he says.

He managed to start the car and sped off while his attackers were still trying to figure out what was happening, he says. “After I rejoined the main road, I drove a distance before meeting the real cops, who showed me their IDs. It then occurred to me that the once I was shown earlier were fake IDs,” he says.

A message that circulated on social media last week, purportedly sent by one of the victims, noted that drivers victimised within a fortnight had lost cash, mobile phones and other valuables.

“These people are so daring that they are robbing drivers in broad daylight at times. There is a case of one Malawian driver who lost $1,000,”

“This gang is, apparently tracking drivers all the way from the port.”

Dar es Salaam Special Police Zone Commander Lazaro Mambosasa victims should report the cases to police stations.

“We do not have such reports, but I think that if there’s any driver who has experienced such an incident the right place to go is a nearby police station,” he said.

In an interview with The Citizen, Traffic Police Commander Fortunatus Musilimu said these were pure criminal incidents, which had nothing to do with traffic police.

“I don’t have such reports. But those are completely criminal offenses, not traffic cases,” he said.

“Such cases are not reported to us; though the people implicated in the incidents have been introducing themselves as traffic officers, technically these are not traffic cases.”