Police warn residents against mobile robbers

Police in Abuja have cautioned the residents of the Federal Capital Territory to be vigilant whenever they want to board commercial vehicles as robbers use such vehicles as decoys to trap unsuspecting commuters and subsequently rob them of their valuables.

According to information obtained from the police, the miscreants whose brand of criminal operation is known as ‘one chance’, operate through “commercial vehicles” and park such vehicles in areas where there is heavy human traffic.

Such areas include bus stops, federal secretariat, shopping malls and market places where they pretend to be commercial vehicles scouting for passengers.

mr Philip Sunday, who is a designer in Abuja, fell a victim of the ‘one chance’ robbery penultimate week while returning home from Area 1, to Lugbe, a satellite town in the Federal Capital Territory, where he is residing with his family.

The ‘one chance’ robbers, are in the habit of picking passengers and robbing them on the way.

While narrating his ordeal to the Nigerian Tribune, Sunday said when he closed for the day from his shop in Area 1, shopping complex at about 7pm, he boarded a waiting vehicle around the Area 1 roundabout with three men already in the vehicle. The driver, one person at the passenger seat and one person at the rear. He said as soon as he boarded the vehicle, the driver zoomed off pretending to be in a haste not to wait for other passengers.

He disclosed that shortly before getting to the Galadimawa roundabout, one of the gangs at the rear seat with him brought out a gun and threatened to shoot him except he cooperated with them by willingly drop the bag he was carrying containing some clothing materials he wanted to work on at home and the sum of N50,000.

He said under terrible threat, the gangs dispossessed him of two phones and the bag and sped off after he had been forcefully pushed out of the vehicle.

Police sources said the “one chance” robbers usually park at busy places, including bus stops, the federal secretariat, shopping malls and markets pretending to be commercial vehicles, in a bid to lure unsuspecting passengers.

After picking their would-be victims, they are joined by other members of the gang, who pretend to be passengers and zoom off.

Few minutes into the journey, they force the passengers to surrender their valuables at gunpoint and thereafter, push them out of the moving vehicle.

The police in FCT have made so many arrests of these hoodlums in the obvious onslaught against this illegal businesses but the rate of robbery involving “one chance” vehicles is still very high.

The police have however, advised the residents and commuters to be wary of the vehicles they board.