Robbers Attack THE WHISTLER Staff Along Abuja-Kubwa Expressway

A staff of THE WHISTLER was on Wednesday night attacked by armed robbers operating with ‘one chance’ commercial vehicle along the Abuja-Kubwa Expressway, dispossessing him of his laptop and mobile phone.

The staff, Yange Ikyaa, now lying at a hospital in Dawaki area, had boarded a commercial bus from Gwarimpa to Kubwa at about 8 P.M and was the seventh passenger in the vehicle.

But as soon as the vehicle, a Volkswagen Sharan bus, left the Gwarimpa bus stop, one of the passengers got up and ordered him to move from the door-side he was sitting to the middle.

But before he knew what was happening, the robbers laid him flat on his back and started hitting him on his head with some steel weapon until he started bleeding.

The robbers brought out a POS after collecting his ATM card and PIN and withdraw the little amount remaining in his bank account.

Obviously infuriated that their victim did not have much money in his account, they hit him harder and started calling some persons on his phone contacts to send money into their account to save his life.

“They checked my phone contacts and started calling people and threatening they were kidnappers and that they would kill me if they didn’t send money.

“They held my two legs and hands and were hitting me on the head with some heavy metal. All of these were happening while the bus was moving for nearly two hours, they didn’t stop,” he narrated on the hospital bed on Thursday morning.

The robbers eventually dropped him off at the Dutse fly-over after almost two hours of non-stop driving.

“I used what seemed like my last breath to stop a Keke(tricycle) and pleaded that he take me to the nearest hospital because at that time I was already drenched in my own blood.

“The doctors were kind and they performed about nine stiches on my head. I thought I would die.”

Several commuters along the Abuja-Kubwa expressway had fallen victims to armed robbers operating in commercial vehicles popularly called “One Chance.”

Spokesman of the Nigeria Police Force, Federal Capital Territory Command, D.S.P Anjugurijesse Manzah, said the police was doing their best to rid the city of criminals.

“Last Thursday five robbery syndicates were nabbed, and three vehicles seized. The robbers operate along Kubwa and Nyanya expressway. So, we’re doing something but we also want members of the public to be security conscious and check vehicles discreetly before boarding.”