Nigerian man Victor Uroko has shared his story warning all to forestall a repeat of what happened while travelling at night. Gives tips to help travellers and advises about the kinds of pictures we leave on our phone gallery.. It getting closer to Christmas, we all know how desperation to make money for Christmas can lead to hike in crimes around this period. Please read carefully and be safe:
They tried but they no reach…,I was travelling alongside other passengers and it was getting late.. 9pm precisely.. the driver was speeding to get us to our destination before it got later than it was when out of nowhere men of the underworld jumped out unto the expressway and threw logs of wood and other metallic objects right in the path of our vehicle which made our driver to brake to a standstill (wrong move .,I would’ve preferred he sped through them and nok them down if need be notwithstanding gunshots or anything.
We were pulled out of the car, slapped, kicked and hounded from the vehicle unto the tarred expressway and made to lie face down with scraped elbows, knees and faces. Our phones were forcefully collected then, we were pushed and marched into the bush to the first clear space while they drove the car with our belongings to another location. We were forced down again and our individual pockets were emptied into a bag each and tied around our necks while we were marched further into the forest, this time with our eyes blindfolded with our singlets and our hands tied with other pieces of cloth…,when we got to another cleared location we were made to lie face down while the contents of whatever they got from each of us were emptied near the owners… Physical currency, wrist watches, chains and the likes were separated, then ATM cards were separated too.
By then I was beginning to wonder if it was a robbery or a planned kidnap, they brought each phone that was collected from each person and and placed it beside the owner, then, they politely asked for out ATM pin codes which some of us refused to produce while the smart ones among us LIKE ME gave them wrong pins. That was when the gbege got real. The first man that refused to say his pin was shot and we heard him screaming in pain while shouting his different pins for different bank accounts as well as begging them to spare his life and get him any medical attention.
At the same time one of the girls that was receiving special attention from one the idiots (he was actually raping her) sprang up and ran blindly this way and that and ended up being shot in the head. That was when we knew they meant business and all the fight and manly skirms in our brain fizzled out and we humbly and meekly submitted our pin codes praying the ordeal ends soonest.
Two of them left with our ATM and pin codes while their leader said it loud to our hearing that if any of the pins should turn out wrong the owner will be shot in the head, we were there face down in the wet mashes while our life savings were being emptied by bastards born by mistakes. They had a field day raping the females among us to their heart content all night while they also stripped us of shirts, jewelry, wristwatches, bangles, shoes even belts and trousers and left us in our briefs at the mercy of mosquitoes and all.
We were left like that till the next day when their colleagues called to tell them there were people among us with more than 200k in their bank accounts but because of the ATM rule of not withdrawing more than 200k per day they’ll have to attempt again the next day. They left us there in the forest and went away with those people probably to continue the withdrawing by the next day.(I pray those people make it home to their loved ones alive), that was how an almost 48hrs ordeal ended. We found ways to untie ourselves after waiting for almost two hours to ascertain they’ve left, then shuffled, wounded and battered out of the bush and back to the road where good Samaritans helped us to our respective homes.
My advice to anyone that cares to listen…
1. Always delete your bank alert after going through it anytime you make a transaction.
2. Mind the type of picture you leave in your phone gallery, you can’t tell a robber you have only 10k while a pic of you in a group pic with Governors and Ministers graces your photo gallery
3. if it’s not a life and death matter, don’t travel on any Nigerian expressway later than 6:30 or 7pm.
4. Don’t ever think The Police will come to your rescue in any case (we actually passed a Police checkpoint 15 mins before the incident started).
5. Don’t ever try to play smart in an event that you find yourself in such unfortunate occurrence, no amount and no property is worth losing your life.
6. If you can, please don’t dress flamboyantly or try to draw attention to yourself while travelling and don’t spray expensive perfumes.