A road robbery incident

The notorious Abuja-Lokoja expressway has recorded another robbery victim – this time it was my cousin.

She was coming back from a wedding in Lokoja (which is next door to Abuja) at around 7.30 pm. She took a taxi, a drop, from Lokoja park to her place in Wuse. The taxi was almost at Gwagwalada when they heard the hissing of the car tyres as if they were being deflated. But the driver didn’t stop. He kept driving frantically, saying armed robbers had set a trap on the road with nails but he still wasn’t going to stop the car. He kept speeding manically till four armed youths descended on the car.

“You dey craze. Instead of stopping you made us chase you. You will suffer for it!”.
The leader of the gang, a youth of about 25 years, fell on the driver with all manner of slaps.

“C’mon surrender your money and your phone” He barked.

“Oga please”, groaned the driver, “I get six children and I never pay school fees.”

“Sharrap, na only you wey get six children? I no go talk am again. Surrender your money and your phone”.

The driver tearfully gave him the money and phone. The leader responded with a more vicious beating.

They turned to my cousin.

“Sister what do you have for us?”

She was already prepared. She surrendered her money and phone quietly.

The leader was so elated by her calmness that he said,”Good girl. You can take your sim card out and give us just the handset”.

She thankfully took her sim card out; after which the boys disappeared into the bush.

“Bastard boys. God punish their papa” shouted the driver. “All my money gone.”

He turned on my cousin in fury blaming her for his losses: “Useless girl. Na you wey cause all this nonsense. No good girl go they outside for this time of night. I sure say na Ashawo you be”.

My cousin protested: “Oga driver you yourself know say na wedding I dey from come!”

The driver kept grumbling and cursing at the thieves, switching to his native language when English wasn’t enough.

The two of them had no option but to walk the rest of the way. They had walked as far as the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital when they were accosted by a van of policemen who arrested them and said that they were just informed by four patriotic youths that a man bearing the taxi- driver’s description had kidnapped a young lady. The driver let out a volley of abuse on the robbers while denying the charges.  My cousin then recounted the story of how they were robbed by the same “patriotic youths”.

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