It happened on the 8th of January, 2015 as Miss Mercy (surname withheld) was going to the office around 5:00 am. She usually leaves home early to beat the frustrating traffic on Lagos road due to the distance of her office from her place of
residence.
Though in the city of Lagos, 5am is not that early because the city never really goes to sleep. Mercy often leaves the house on daily basis with her neighbour who also works on Lagos Island.
On that fateful morning, she did not know what made her to leave her neighbour behind and proceeded to the bus stop alone where she boarded a bus going to Obalende.
At the bus stop, everywhere was deserted. It was the beginning of the year and majority of Lagos residence had travelled for the yuletide. She stood for some time waiting for a commercial bus. After about 10 minutes a yellow painted commercial vehicles drove into the bus station.
As usual the conductor that was shouting Obalende! Obalende! and a man in is late thirties who she thought was a passenger was seated in the front seat of the bus otherwise the bus was absolutely empty. Mercy hopped in immediately and sat comfortably on one of the empty seats.
An old man made an attempt to enter the bus, but the driver sped off. Mercy being the inquisitive type asked the driver why he did not let the man board the bus as there were still empty seats. The driver replied that the man could not afford the fare.
As the bus sped on, she discovered that before the bus could get to Yaba from Jibowu where she boarded the bus, it was almost filled up unlike previous days. Another incident that aroused her suspicion was in Yaba.
The driver did not stop to pick police officers who usually waiting for free ride. Mercy asked again, “Driver, why are you running off in this manner and abandoning prospective passengers at the bus stop?”
The question was met with a strange silence. At that point, it was dawned on her that she was in the midst of the deadly crooks. At this time, the bus was filled to the brim.
When the bus approached a lonelier place, she looked back and discovered that all the passengers were men. They were thirteen men in the bus of which she happened. Mercy was the fourteenth passenger and the only female.
One of the men seated next to her maneuvered to the window seat where she previously sat and hemmed her in between two men. In a flash, the man seated in the front seat turned, and with a stony face, requested for her handbag. She urged her to cooperate.
He told her that he won’t hesitate to bath her with the bottle of acid if she refuses to cooperate. As she opened her mouth to speak, another man in the bus gave her a resounding slap. ‘’Do you think any of us are one of your useless boyfriends?’’ He hollered. Mercy was shaking all over.
Immediately, she was asked to bend over, hide under the seat and remain calm. They took her wrist watch, tried to remove her earrings but could not. The man searched her bag, brought out her two mobile phones, ATM cards, her purse and a power bank that was given to her by her neighbour as gift.
The man asked for her ATM pin which she quickly gave him. He asked for how much she had in her account, she told them, he asked for her mobile phone password, she gave them as well, by this time the bus had turned at Alagomeji and had proceeded back to Jibowu bus stop where she boarded the bus and was heading towards Ojuelegba.
It was like miracle when the man seated in the front seat spoke in her local dialect by telling her that he won’t let them hurt her if she give them what they want which is the money in her account.
At Ojuelegba, the man said that her only saviour was that she is his ‘sister’ and instructed his boys who are of different tribe to return the phones and her hand bag to her.
They returned the phones, her purse and her handbag and asked her to go. She was dropped off at Ojuelegba Bridge and was asked to run. Mercy, who was still in shock, ran off in fear, crying and thanking God for saving her life from those cold blooded criminals.
She narrated her touching story and went further to advice that people especially ladies should be very careful, vigilant, be at alert and not be in a haste to board a bus.
Violent robbery has suddenly become the norm in Lagos. Let’s hope the government will put an end to this by putting the necessary security mechanisms in place to protecting innocent residents from violent robbers.
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