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Ryan informed us at breakfast that armed men had robbed Joel’s office during the night. Little by little, details of the robbery filtered in. At around 1:30 that morning, armed men tied up the two guards and proceeded to go to work on the metal gates and bars supposed to protect the businesses in the building. A lot of cutting was required—this is one of the more secure buildings in Warri. A laptop, camcorder and a large quantity of cash (some of it belonging to our group) was taken. The office was left in disarray but at least no one was seriously hurt. With an ineffective police force, it is a pretty safe bet this crime will go uninvestigated and unsolved. It took hours after Joel got there for the police to even make an appearance.

Many of us had been using the NIDPRODEV office during the week because the hotel was unable to provide reliable Internet access. It’s possible that the presence of “oyibos” had contributed to this building being targeted.