A victim of ‘one-chance’ vehicle, Jennifer Obiora, has narrated how she was robbed in a commercial bus in Lagos.
Obiora boarded the usual yellow bus in the Iponri area of Lagos heading to Alaka on Monday evening not knowing she had entered a one-chance vehicle operated by robbers.
Explaining how traumatised she felt, Obiora told our correspondent on Thursday that the ordeal was a “terrible one.”
She said she was dispossessed of her iPhone 11 Pro Max and N10,000 cash in her bag before she was pushed out of the moving bus on the road.
Obiora narrated, “It was a 16-passenger bus. It’s longer than the normal small Korope (bus). It was just me, the driver, a passenger in front and the conductor.
“So, I entered the front seat with another supposed passenger, whom I thought was also a passenger. He was carrying a bag.
“I minded my business. I was even pressing my phone. I was on my phone trying to reply to my friend. The other guy was also pressing his phone. So, he was saying we should put our phones inside our bags.
“Unsuspecting, I looked at the guy, and said, let me put it inside the bag. (I was thinking) maybe they do snatch phones around here. I put my phone inside my handbag. And after some time, he was like, I should wear the seatbelt.
“I was now using one hand to take the seat belt from him. He said I should use my two hands, and he opened the door later. I did use my two hands to hold it. I think it was in that process they opened my bag and took everything that was inside the bag. And then, I remembered that they had opened the door, and I was still holding onto the seatbelt.
“So, they were saying ‘that seatbelt, this thing,’ and they just pushed me (out of the bus) and dragged the seatbelt off me. I fell and, thank God, the pavement was full of sand and there was a little grass on it. That saved me.”
The victim said as she fell, two dispatch riders were coming and they offered to chase the bus after she told them what happened, but the effort was futile.
“So, I begged them to take me to the police station. I reported the case, and then we went back to the scene of the crime and showed the police where it happened. So we were able to see my keys on the floor.”
The victim lamented that the incident happened a few metres away from the police area command, bemoaning the level of insecurity in the area despite police presence.
According to her, the incident had been rampant as she got to know from other victims and even the police officers that several complaints had been made at the station.
She added, “They say it’s rampant there. I’m wondering, how come such a thing is happening around the police area command, and they (the culprits) are not even found?
“They (the police) also confirmed that they’ve been getting reports, and there was one (suspect) that they even caught. That it was because there was traffic that they were able to catch that one.”
Our reporter put calls across to the desk lines of the Area C Police Command, Iponri station, but the lines were switched off.
The Public Relations Officer of the Lagos State Police Command, CSP Benjamin Hundeyin, had not responded to calls and a text message concerning the incident as of the time of filing this report.
