Category: Crime Diary

The bid by some traders in Lagos to make savings that they can fall back on when the need arises has ended up rending their hearts. The financial intuitions they saved their monies with have closed shops and bolted with their savings INNOCENT DURU reports that some of the victims have ended up in hospitals while some others have had to shut down their businesses. But in spite of the havoc they are wreaking, fraudulent financial institutions are spreading without any proactive steps by the regulatory bodies to tame them and save unsuspecting citizens.

MUMMY Success, a frozen food seller in Igando area of Lagos State, was filled with fear when she was approached by officials of Wegrow, a financial organisation based at Hotel Bus Stop on LASU/Isheri Road, to start saving part of her income with them.

After much persuasion and conviction about the need to save for the rainy day, the chubby looking woman agreed to do business with the organistion. For more than two years, she had a chummy relationship with the organisation and even went out of her way  to recommend them to friends and neghbours.

After engaging in some serious expenditure that ate into her capital three months ago, she decided  to take part  of her savings to re-stock but got the shock of her life.

The heartbroken trader said: “They have finished me. They have disappeared with the money I saved with them. I have cried and cried without any solution.

“See, my shop has become empty because the money I had with them was what I planned to use to restock my shop. Where do I start from?”

She said the ugly development had turned her into an object of scorn in her neighbourhood.

“I have become the subject of mockery at the hands of people. My enemies are ridiculing me, saying that I went to take a big shop when I didn’t have money to stock it with goods.

“See the shame that Wegrow has brought to my life. I have cried and cried without any solution to my problem.

“What I have done is to put the card in which they marked my name each time I made payment in the Bible on the altar of my church. Let God handle the case for me because there is no other person I can run to.”

Explaining how she became aware that the company had stopped operation, she said: “We got to know that they were no more in operation when the field officer was not seen for some days.

“Her absence raised serious suspicion as everybody became agitated and moved to know what was wrong.

“It was at that point that we knew the company had folded up.”

Recalling how her relationship with the company started, the distraught woman said: “I started banking with Wegrow over two years ago. They proved very reliable and dependable all along.

“Their field officers used to move around to collect our savings on a daily basis.

“Many of us bought the idea because it saved us the time and stress of going to the bank to deposit money.

“Besides, the sums we saved with them were not the kind for which one should go to the bank. It was meant to encourage petty traders like us to save money.

“At times, I would call them on a weekend that I needed money and before you know it, they would send it into my account.

“They were that reliable.”

Although she is weighed down by her plight, Mummy Success says she sometimes takes solace in the fate that befell another customer of the defunct financial organisation who lost millions of naira in deposits.

She said: “A woman who deposited a huge sum of money fainted when she heard that they had folded up.

“I learnt that she deposited about N5 million with them.  She was rushed to a hospital and admitted before she later regained consciousness.

“I learnt that she was promised N750 interest on a daily basis for keeping the money in their care.

“After calculating what she would get over a period of time, she agreed to deposit the money with them for an agreed period.

“The agreed period had not lapsed before they closed shop and disappeared with everybody’s money.”

A fashion designer, who gave his name simply as Mayowa, also lost the money he was saving to pay his children’s school fees to the organisation. Mayowa said: “I decided to be saving money with them in order to have money to pay my children’s school fees at the beginning of every term.

“I was convinced that they were genuine because they made us understand that they were an affiliate of a popular new generation bank in the country.

“We were paying into their account domiciled in that new generation bank. With that in mind, I concluded that they were genuine and that I should not have anything to fear about.”

Mayiwa said before the company went underground, “it was as if my wife had a foreboding that the company was up to something untoward.

“At a point, she asked me to go and withdraw my savings but I told her that I would spend it if I did and would not be able to achieve the purpose for which I was keeping the money if I should withdraw it at that time.

“Unfortunately for me, the company stopped operations shortly before the time I needed the money.

“When I went to their office to ask for the money, I saw that they were no more in business.

“Other depositors had gone there to vandalise the premises and made away with whatever they could lay their hands on.

“That was how I lost my savings to them and couldn’t pay my children’s school fees as and when due.”

A petty trader, Gladys, said: “I have lost all my savings to the company. It was the savings I was making to boost my business but it has all gone down the drain.

“The promoters of the company came to us looking very real and innocent. They never gave any clue that they were fraudsters.

“It was after they stopped operations that it dawned on me that criminals could court you for many years to make you feel at home before carrying out their evil plan.

“Many people in this area were banking with them because they appeared reliable and dependable for years.”

Gladys also told of a beer seller in her area who slumped and had to be admitted in a hospital.

She said: “The woman had more than N200,000 with the company. Immediately she heard that the company had folded up, she slumped and had to be rushed to hospital. It took her days to regain consciousness.”

A cooking gas dealer identified simply as Moses was unwilling to comment when our correspondent approached him, saying it was an unpleasant experience unworthy of remembering or talking about.

“The company has caused untold setback, grief and heartache for many people in this area and beyond.

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“They gained the confidence and trust of hundreds of people over a long period of time but we never knew that they had a terrible plan,” he said.

When our correspondent visited the defunct company’s area at Oko Oloyun area, Hotel Bus Stop, along LASU/Isheri Road, the residents decried the damage they did to the lives of their teeming customers.

“Hope your money was not much?” one of the neigbours asked. “The company has liquidated. That is the simple way I can put it.

“They stopped operation and fled this place more than two months ago. People have been coming from all nooks and crannies of Igando to look for them.

“There was a time that this area could not contain the victims who came to see if the company still existed.”

Before the Wegrow incident, some traders in Oke-Odo area of Abule-Egba, a Lagos suburb, had suffered a similar fate.

One of the victims, Mrs. Alimi, said she was swindled by the operators of a microfinance bank in the neighbourhood known as Moneyplus.

“My entire life has crashed! Where do I start from now? How do I pick up the pieces of my life?” she said.

“I gave them N40,000 and they promised to give me five times my money but they have disappeared into the thin air.

“I have been scammed of my hard-earned money. My life has finished,” she added.

But she was not alone in her plight. Olajide Ojo, a welder, shares the same experience. Ojo said he deposited close to N50,000 with the microfinance outfit in the hope that he would be able to get a facility to purchase a welding machine that would cost about N300,000, but like other victims of the bank, his hope was dashed as the operators of the finance house bolted when it was time to reward their unsuspecting customers with sums that were twice their deposits as loans. Ojo said: “I’ve been duped. I’ve been duped. My N150,000 gone just like that. If I knew that they were fraudsters, I would not have patronised them at all.

“The money I deposited with them was proceeds of some jobs I did for my customers in the last six months. I saved hard and denied myself and my family of luxuries just so I could save for the equipment I had been trying to acquire to boost my work, not knowing that I would live to regret it.

“Actually, it was a friend that introduced the finance house to me. He had been depositing his money with the firm but he too was swindled.”

A trader, Bisi Mohammed, said she lost more than N30,000 to the financial institution, saying: “I was hoping to get a bountiful loan as promised by the operators of the finance firm, not knowing that they were fraudsters.

”My N30,000 is gone and my hope of obtaining a loan 10 times the sum I deposited has hit the rock.”

Incident damaging economy, killing savings culture, says expert

An economic expert, Dr Austin Nweze, decried the ugly trend, saying it goes a long way in killing the savings culture and damaging the economy.

His words: “The incident is damaging to the economy because they are killing the savings culture.

“We don’t have a savings culture and then the small business who saves with them hoping to draw the money to do more business or  borrow more money is damaging.

“It is not good for the economy. People are losing confidence and investments.

“When investors begin to lose confidence, they would not put their money in savings; they would rather keep it under their mattresses.

“This reduces interaction between banks and potential customers they may not yet have a relationship with. It is bad for the economy.”

Nweze said he was not sure if such savings and loans organisations are covered by the NDIC, but he said that “they should be able to make sure that no customer loses his money.

“Mushroom financial organistions are under the microfinance system but supervision is the issue.

“They are regulated but there is no proper supervision. They are focusing on the banks.

“I think they should be insured by the NDIC so that nobody loses his money.

“If they are not insured, they must be forced to be insured.”

Explaining why some financial companies go under, he said: “It depends on the motive of setting up that business. The motive could be to defraud and another motive could really be to do business but the economic environment may have been too harsh for them to continue and they are not able to manage their costs.

“For instance, there was a microfinance bank that was seemingly doing well but the MD felt he was a bank manager and should live like a conventional bank MD, forgetting that  he was running  a microfinance bank.

“They ran diesel all day at home with the wife, watching Nollywood movies and  living a very high life.

“Not quite long, the bank went under.

“Some of the banks are well intentioned and others may not be well intentioned.

“The thing is that anything you don’t manage well, you lose. Management is the issue.

“In a business like a microfinance bank, they tend to forget what they are there for.

“Once they start seeing people’s money, they can make some wrong investments.

“They could invest short term funds in long term projects thinking that investors may not call for their savings as soon as possible.

CBN keeps mum

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was yet to react to our  inquiry on what it is doing to save innocent citizens from the menace of fraudulent financial institutions thriving across the country.   The Head of Corporate Communications at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Osita Nwanisobi, was yet to react to a message sent to his mobile line.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday announced plans to  redesign some denominations of the  naira notes.

The CBN governor, Godwin  Emefiele, said one of the challenges for reaching the decision primarily is  significant hoarding of banknotes by members of the public, with statistics showing that over 80 percent of currency in circulation are outside the vaults of commercial banks.

He said as at the end of September 2022, available data at the CBN indicate that N2.73 trillion out of the N3.23 trillion currency in circulation, was outside the vaults of commercial banks across the country; and supposedly held by the public.

“Evidently, currency in circulation has more than doubled since 2015; rising from N1.46 trillion in December 2015 to N3.23 trillion in September 2022. This is a worrisome trend that cannot be allowed to continue.”

Experts are of the view that unwholesome practices such as the ones above could be part of the reasons why there is more money in the public than in the banks.

 

The arrival of the first baby of a newly wed couple should be a cause for joy and celebration. But that is not the case with Mr. John Aniefon and his wife, Ebele. The distraught father is not only mourning the loss of their first baby, the police have also accused him of complicity in the alleged harvesting of the deceased baby’s organs.

The news of Okpono Abasi’s arrival at St. Theresa’s Hospital in Issele-Uku, Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta State on September 27 had sent the entire Aniefon family into a jubilant mood at their residence in the rustic Ubulu-Okiti community, Aniocha South Local Government Area, where Aniefon, a casual labourer, works as an asphalt plant operator.

Their joy however turned into anxiety when the news filtered in moments later that the newborn baby had been referred to another hospital in Asaba, Delta State capital, causing Aniefon’s 75-year-old father, John Felix, to call off the customary reception for his first grandson at his residence.

By a stroke of ill fate, an otherwise joyous moment has since turned into ashes in the mouths of family members.

Recounting his ordeal, Aniefon said he felt proud on hearing the news that  his wife Ebele had been delivered of a baby boy at St Theresa’s Hospital. He said he had made adequate preparations for the baby’s delivery hence he had no premonition of the tragic events that were about to unfold.

He recalled that the medical doctors at St Theresa’s Hospital, who referred his son to the Specialist Hospital in Asaba had only cited complications due to prolonged labour. On getting to Asaba, he said, the newborn was again referred to El Comfort, a private hospital in Bonsaac part of Asaba, due to scarcity of bed space.

Unfortunately, his son died 11 days after he was admitted at El Comfort Hospital on September 29. But he said the hospital’s management refused to allow him to take his son’s body away for burial because of the outstanding medical bills.

He said the hospital only gave him the option of leaving his wife and mother-in-law behind as surety if he must take his baby’s body away without settling the outstanding bills.

“I was told to either leave my wife or mother-in-law and take the child for burial. But because my wife had a cesarean section, we all decided to sleep on the floor in the hospital,” he said.

Aniefon however said he was shocked when he went to collect the remains of his son the following morning and discovered that some of his vital organs were missing. He said: “The following morning, I went to check on the baby only to discover that his entire face had been mutilated. His two eyes had gorged out and one of his ears was missing. I was confused and speechless.

“My family and I chartered a taxi and headed to the police station in Asaba.

“But at Maryam Babangida Junction, we narrated the problem to operatives of Delta Safe who accompanied us to the hospital and three hospital staff members were arrested and taken to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) in Asaba.”

Aniefon said following his mandatory visit to the police station on October 11, five policemen stormed the private hospital and found two men tampering with the CCTV camera. He said the police arrested the men and took them to their station.

Aniefon however said he was shocked at the hostile attitude of the policemen at the Delta SCID towards him and members of his family as the investigating police officer warned that he and his family members could face charges if the camera failed to reveal the culprits.

Aniefon said the attitude of the police gave him reasons to fear that the evidence in the CCTV camera could be destroyed. He alleged that the two men arrested by the policemen at El Comfort Hospital for tampering with the camera had already been set free.

He also said there were discrepancies in the accounts of the hospital’s Chief Medical Director (CMD) and another official of the hospital. According to him, while the CMD, Dr Ben Ajufo, claimed that the files for the month of September and October in the security camera were intact, the unnamed official said the camera has been out of use for several months.

Aniefon’s 30-year-old wife, Ebele, has been inconsolable, saying that she had contemplated suicide on several occasions after the incident.

The distraught mother, who said her pains were threefold, appealed to government to step into the matter to avoid miscarriage of justice.

Like her husband, however, she said she was determined to get justice for her son.

 

Ebele said: “My heart is broken. I am in pains. Not just one pain but three. First, the physical trauma of a cesarean section. Then, the death of my son in tragic circumstances and thirdly, the pain of the knowledge that vital organs of my innocent son were harvested by unknown persons.

“Each time I think about these things, I cry. I pray that God will help us out and give us justice in this case. “Sometimes I feel like committing suicide. I feel like jumping into our well at home. If my husband is not around, thoughts of suicide fill my heart.

“I want God to give us justice. They have seen that we are poor and don’t have lawyers. But we have God. We have Nigerians.

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“We urge public spirited people to join us in this case. They want my husband in jail to cover their crime.”

A human rights group, Delta State Coalition of Civil Societies, NGO’s and Media, has raised the alarm over an alleged attempt by the Delta Police to cover up the alleged crime of organ harvesting in the private hospital.

In the petition to Chairman, Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Asaba, Delta State titled, ‘Organ Harvesting in El Comfort Hospital, Bonsaac, Asaba, Delta State and conspiracy by the  Delta Police State CID (Homicide Department)’, human rights activist, Mr Victor Ojei, accused the Delta State Police Command of deliberately mishandling investigation into the missing organ case of an infant to pervert justice.

Ojei  called for “a dispassionate re-investigation by another department or team from Nigerian Police Force, Zone 5 Benin City, Edo State, since the Delta Police State CID has been compromised and are biased”.

Part of the petition reads: “The case should be withdrawn by the Police for lack of proper investigation before prosecution because of the obvious bias. The case should be reassigned, investigated dispassionately and prosecuted thereafter.”

Ojei alleged that evidence had been tampered with as police detectives  arrested two suspects caught tampering with the CCTV camera in the hospital.

He said: “During the investigation activity report on site, we discovered  alongside six Supols assigned from the State CID Asaba  that the CCTV Camera which could have exposed the suspect who perpetrated this act was being tampered with by some young men who obviously were employed by the El Comfort Hospital.

“They were arrested and brought to the State CID, but till date, we have no information on how they were handled despite being caught on site tampering with the CCTV hardware obviously in a cover-up bid.”

He said the removal of the original Investigating Police Officer (IPO) handling the case was “frivolous and unprofessional”, adding it was a ploy to frustrate the outcome.

He maintained that the Police failed in their duty of investigation by not performing an autopsy to determine what actually happened to the mutilated infant that was under the care of El Comfort Hospital.

But the Chief Medical Director, El Comfort, Dr Ben Ajufo, insisted the baby was handed over to its parents, adding that the parents slept in the hospital over the night with the baby.

He said: “If you have followed the development of the case, you should know that the baby was handed over to the father and mother and the parents slept with the baby in the hospital.

“The police have investigated the matter to know where the issue emanated. There was an attempt to force negotiation but we refused.”

Delta Police Command image maker, DSP Edafe Bright confirmed the incident but said the matter had been charged to court.

Investigation by The Nation revealed that those charged are Mr Aniefon John and the nurse on night duty.

John Ohiri, an indigene of Agbaji in Nwangele Local Government Area, Imo State and successful spare parts dealer based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has been in distress since November 19 last year. His life took a pathetic twist when he returned from work on that fateful day and discovered that his wife and three children were nowhere in sight.

Ohiri had found it very strange that none of his children ran out of their Number 5 Ada George apartment to welcome him as they were wont to. His wife Stella, his first daughter Miracle, his only son Joshua and his last daughter Deborah were all nowhere to be found and the house was unusually quiet.

Where could they be? Ohiri wondered. He called the phone number of Stella’s sister, Onyinyechi, to know whether they were at her place, but she answered in the negative. An incident that started like a joke soon turned into a sorrowful reality, and since then, Ohiri has searched in vain for his family members.

Narrating his ordeal, Ohiri said: “On November 19, a Friday, I gave my wife money to prepare soup as I was going to work. I went to the shop but when I came back, I didn’t see my wife and my kids.

“I called Onyinyechi to know whether my wife and kids were at their place but she said no. I called my elder brother, who lives along Iwofe, but he said my wife and kids were not there. I also called my elder sister in the village and my in-laws in the village but they all said they never saw my family. I reported to my pastor.”

Ohiri said the next day, a Saturday, he returned from his shop to discover that his wife came and took a few of her belongings, including a travelling bag, using the spare key to their apartment and later bolted away.

“But I didn’t know where she went to. I was running up and down to have a clue of where she could have gone to.

“On Sunday morning, I decided to pay a surprise visit to Onyinyechi to know whether she was saying the truth.”

Ohiri said on his way to Onyinyechi’s place, he saw his neighbour, Victor, who told him that he saw the wife when she came to take a few of her belongings including a travelling bag. Victor also claimed that he did not know the whereabouts of the woman.

He said all the efforts he had made to locate his wife had proved abortive as her phones were switched off. Ohiri has reported the matter at Ada George Police Station.

The visibly traumatised Ohiri, who broke down in tears, said Onyinyechi invited some of her in-laws, who came and was told about the development. But instead of joining him to search for their daughter, Ohiri’s in-laws dealt him a deadly blow. They accused him of killing their daughter and his three children for ritual purposes. The man among them insisted that Ohiri killed them to enable him purchase his exotic Toyota Venza car.

They did not stop at mere allegation; they reported to the police and entered a statement against Ohiri. The police arrested the devastated father and took him to their station. In the presence of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), the in-laws repeated the allegation and one of them gave him a dirty slap before the DPO. “This was the most devastating part of my ordeal. It compounded my headache and made me shed tears. I couldn’t believe that my in-laws could fabricate such lies against me. But the DPO did not believe them.

“Their brother said I killed my wife and my children to enable me buy a Toyota Venza car. The brother stood up and slapped me in the presence of the DPO. But the DPO held and detained him.

“They wanted to detain me but I resisted it and informed them that I made an entry a day before that day. They said I should show proof of the entry.

“I called the policeman who took my statement. He came and confirmed that I made such entry. But the policeman said he could not process the statement because he was ill.

“They still detained me for two days. The DPO still called me and asked me to explain what happened. I still explained everything.

“He told my in-laws that it was impossible for me to kill four people without any trace. He called for my release. My in-laws were still anxious to get me detained.”

The police immediately commenced investigations into the whereabouts of Ohiri’s wife and his three children. They asked Ohiri to invite his neighbour, Victor, to come and write a statement but Victor declined. Ohiri said he was asked to pay N250,000 to track his wife’s phone.

He said the police discovered that a particular number called his wife 26 times. But when the police called the number, the woman who picked it claimed that her husband used the phone to make the calls.

He said: “They asked the woman why she made 26 calls to my wife’s number. The woman said the calls were all made by her husband. She said she didn’t know the whereabouts of her husband. The police held the woman.

“I went home and changed the padlocks to my apartment. I didn’t go anywhere. I stayed at home to know whether my wife would come and pick other things. I heard a noise. I came out and discovered that a Hausa man was opening Victor’s apartment.

“I asked how he got the keys. He said Victor and his friends were in a tinted vehicle on Ikwere Road, wound up. He said Victor gave him a phone for communication and asked him to get him a few things.

“I told my other neighbour Samuel to hold the Hausa man for me so I could go to the police station and report the development.

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“The police prepped the Hausa man and asked him to lead two policewomen to where Victor was waiting for him. Three of John’s in-laws also joined the team while Victor was asked to stay back at the station since he could easily be recognised by Victor.”

Ohiri further observed that though his rent had not expired, Victor had secretly moved most of his belongings out of his apartment despite having no issues with the landlord.

Ohiri said when the policewomen attempted to arrest Victor, he escaped and nearly used his vehicle to kill them. They, however, gave him a hot chase using motorcycles to apprehend him and brought him to the station.

He said: “I have been suspecting Victor. Since the incident happened, he had been secretly moving his belongings out of his apartment. I begged the police to interrogate him, that he would know the whereabouts of my wife and children.

“Victor spent the night at the station. But the next day, his people came and called one policewoman from Kala, who came and took Victor on bail. But my in-laws were still claiming that I killed their daughter and my children. I remained devastated.

“But the Commissioner of Police asked the Ada George Police Station to carry out a thorough investigation.

“I took the pictures of my wife and children to a television station and paid the station to declare them missing. I went to anti-kidnapping unit of the police to explain myself because my in-laws were on my neck.

“While I was at the anti-kidnapping unit after making another statement at 9pm, they asked me to sit down somewhere. I sat down there till 2 am. They called me out and surrounded me with guns. They asked me to repeat everything I entered in the statement.

“I repeated everything, but my in-laws were still insisting I used them for rituals. But the head of the anti-kidnapping asked me and my in-laws to form a team and begin to look for them. He gave us two weeks to find them. We resorted to prayers and my in-laws even resorted to other spiritual means.

“But on August 4, my pastor called me and said he got information that a woman claiming to be a reverend sister had 15 children in her custody. He said my daughter was one of the 15 children.”

Ohiri had goose pimples when he got the report. He said: “My daughter was smart enough to mention her name, my name and our address. Miracle was seven years when they disappeared, but now she is eight years.

“Miracle said she knew our house. They took her to our place but I was not around because I was on my way back from the village.

“They took her back to Ada George Police Station. The police confirmed the matter was in their station. Because it was Sunday, Miracle took them to our church. She mentioned the name of our church and told them that the pastor knew him. Immediately the pastor came out, my daughter ran to him.”

The pastor also identified her and lamented that Ohiri’s in-laws had been accusing him of killing his children. The pastor commended the police and told them to double their efforts to recover the remaining members of the family.

Ohiri added: “My reunion with my daughter was very emotional. When they called her out, she immediately sighted me and rushed towards me. I embraced her and tears rolled down my eyes. I cried and my daughter cried too. It took me about an hour to recollect myself.

“My daughter said her mother on that day finished preparing the soup. Victor called her to bring kernel oil and her mother took the kernel oil to Victor’s apartment. As soon her mother wanted to enter the room, a nail pierced her leg. My daughter said Victor brought the mother out bleeding.

“Victor said he was taking her for treatment. After a while, Victor came back and told them that their daddy instructed him to take them to their mother at the hospital. But instead of taking them to their mother, Miracle said he took the three of them to his own mother’s place.

My daughter said early in the morning the next day, Victor took the kids and handed them over to the reverend sister. But the reverend sister has been claiming that Victor only brought Miracle to her.”

On September 6, the Commissioner of Police, Friday Eboka, paraded the fake Reverend sister identified as Maureen Wechinwu, at the state police command in Port Harcourt.

Eboka confirmed that based on intelligence, Wechinwu was arrested at her residence in Aluu Community, Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State and rescued 15 children from her home.

He said the children recovered from the suspected trafficker were aged between seven and nine, adding that the suspect would be prosecuted upon completion of investigation.

Confirming that Miracle was among the recovered children, Eboka said: “Miracle John Ohiri (f) was abducted on November 19, 2021 at Ada-George Road, Port Harcourt, opposite Holy Rock Church, along with her mother and two siblings, who have not been seen till date.”

The police promised that they would continue with investigation to unravel the whereabouts of Ohiri’s wife and the two other children.

Ohiri confirmed that the police had been on the matter. He said the mother of the victim and the policewoman that earlier facilitated Victor’s release from custody had been interrogated. He also said the reverend sister had confirmed that Victor brought three of his children to her but later sent his sister to retrieve two of them.

He said: “I commend the police for what they have done so far. I am pleading with them to intensify their investigation to re-arrest Victor so that I will know the whereabouts of my wife and my three children. My life is not complete without them”.

While many have resorted to e-driving as a means to gainful employment, the challenges inherent are causing some to have a different view of the job. Some of the drivers who have had near-death experiences spoke with GBENGA ADERANTI

Smart Adegbola, a fair, tall and handsome young man, would ordinarily not give a thought to driving a taxi, but he needed money to set up an aluminum fabrication business. Hence he joined the league of e-drivers popularly called Uber drivers.

While his involvement in the vocation held a lot of promise at the beginning, Adegbola has had a second thought about it since an ugly encounter he had with a group of young men who nearly snuffed life out of him. Since the unseemly experience, his tongue is always in his mouth each time he gets a call from a customer.

Narrating his experience to The Nation, he said he was at the African Shrine, Ikeja, Lagos, when a young man requested to be taken to Abule-Egba, another part of Lagos, at about 5 am. Adegbola said: “Immediately I got to the spot where he said I should pick him up, he made to enter the back seat, but I said no, that he should sit in the front.

“We had barely ridden together for five minutes when the passenger said that something had dropped from his pocket. I joined him in searching the car but nothing was found, so he said we should continue the journey.”

Unknown to the 30-year-old Uber driver, his client had a hidden motive.

He said: “When we got to his estate, I stopped and waited for him to pay me the N1,000 fare. But he said he had no cash and would prefer to do a transfer. My seat belt was still fastened while he had removed his. He had also opened the car door and one of his legs was already out.

“I gave him my account details and he dialed the USDD. It was still dark but I was watching him. Suddenly, I just saw a flash of shadow approaching my head. Before I could do anything, he had hit me with a stone in the head. That was when I knew that I was in for a hard time.

“We started struggling as he tried to push me off the steering and take possession of the car. The car engine was revving while he had grabbed my neck.

“I thought of pressing the horn to attract attention, but I was afraid that if I left his hand, it could be fatal. I accelerated the car but he succeeded in putting off the ignition.”

The Uber passenger alighted from the car and Adegbola heaved a sigh of relief, not knowing that he (passenger) had removed the key.

“Suddenly, the passenger made a U-turn and I had to alight from the car as he approached me. I landed in the drainage as I made get out of the car quickly.

“He threw a stone at me while I was inside the drainage but, fortunately, the stone did not meet me.”

The passenger had taken control of the car and was trying to run out of the gate while Adegbola was crying for help without any forthcoming.

“Rather than run after the passenger as he made away with my cab, I started shouting ‘thief, thief’ in the hope that the security men in the estate would help me.

“The security guard at the gate was probably afraid too, so he could not come out. I kicked the entrance of the security house.

“Finally, the ingenuity of one of the guards at the estate saved the day as he radioed the personnel at the other gates around the estate not to allow the car to get out.

“When he (passenger) discovered that all the gates had been locked, he forced his way out by using the car to break the locked gates.

“Fortunately for me, the car fell into a ditch outside one of the gates. He quickly alighted from the car but was caught by passers bye as he tried to run away.

“His parents came and met us there and begged that the matter should be settled.”

Adegbola said the matter was eventually settled at the police station with the parents of the passenger agreeing to get the car repaired.

He said, however, that there had been other dangerous of frustrating experiences apart from his close shave with death at the hands of a deadly passenger. According to him, it is annoying that some would be customers would call only for you to get to the location and they are somewhere else.

Over time, he said, he had learnt to be wary when would be customers request for a ride and later tell him to change direction.

He said: “There was a time, someone asked me to come and pick him up at Fagba (a Lagos suburb). But by the time I got to where I was supposed to pick the rider, I discovered that there were six of them and I zoomed off immediately.

“They said there was no problem but I told them point blank that I was not interested and that they could cancel the appointment. Something told me that they had an evil plan.”

 

Not twice lucky

While Adegbola’s was lucky to escape death and his losses were mitigated in the attack he suffered from a passenger in Abule Egba, he was not as lucky when he was attacked by a group of young men in their 20s.

According to him, what started as a friendly business turned sour after he took the young men to their destination but was robbed of his iPhone, android phone and savings. The sad experience, he said, began with a request by some riders at Hostel Bus Stop in Ikotun, another Lagos suburb, to take them to Lekki. He said: “I was not comfortable going on the trip because they said they wanted an offline ride. Rather than allow me to come to where they were, they told me to go to a filling station so that they would come and meet me there.

“As they approached me, I noticed that they cancelled the request. That was when I became suspicious about the trip.

“They told me that they were going for a transaction and that I should name my price for a whole day trip, for which I charged N20,000 and they agreed.

“They were three in number, and with the way they entered the car, I was uncomfortable. They too knew I was a bit jittery. They suggested that since I was afraid and they too were afraid, we should pick a police escort on our way, because they did not want any harassment from the police. They said that if we got to a police station, we would get a police escort.”

Adegbola took his riders to Eko Hotel, thinking that he was going to be paid. But rather than paying him, they took his iPhone and searched for the exchange rate of dollars.

“They later returned my phone and went to the Mallam that changing dollars, but they disagreed over the exchange rate,” he said.

Adegbola said from Eko Hotel, he was again directed by the three riders to take them to Constain in Ebute Meta area. Again, the agreement was that they were going to meet someone at Constain Bus Stop. But when they got there, the story changed again as he was told to drive to another place.

By this time, he knew he was in a big mess and only a miracle would save him.

He said: “It was here I got angry and started asking questions. From here, they started contacting another person, telling him that they were in front of his house and that he should come out.

“The person at the other end of the telephone asked them if they brought someone else along, and they said they didn’t.

“For more than 10 minutes, the person they were calling refused to come out.”

Adegbola said at this point, he was already trembling with fear. Again, they requested for his phone and at this point, he had no option but to accede to their requests. That turned out to be the last time he would be holding his phone. They were not happy with him because he had wiped the search history.

“I asked them to return my phone to me, but rather than do that, they started threatening me and switched to the slangs of the cult group called Eiye Confraternity.

“The first thought that came to my mind was that I was in a big mess. They heard what I said and responded, ‘Bross, you don fuck up. We no fit harm you because na bible dey your front.’”

“They took the bible and swore by it that they would not harm me and God should punish them if they did. They said the phone was too small to be taken away from me.

“Unfortunately for me, on that day, I had three phones- my iphone, android and one other phone. They eventually took everything from me at gunpoint.

“They checked my phones and deleted all my contacts. They took the password of my iphone, collected my ATM card and collected my pin.

“They searched the car and asked me how much I had. I had N10,000 or N12,000 in the car on that day, which was a Sunday. They took everything away. They told me to walk away.

When he went to the bank the second day, he discovered that they had withdrawn all the money in his account.

 

More ugly experiences

Before he ventured into e-driving, Adesola Ogun was a manager in a farm. According to him, the salary he was being paid was not enough to take care of his family, hence the need to seek an alternative. But he said it is by the sheer grace that he is still alive after the numerous close shaves he has had with death as a driver.

Ogun says he prefers to work at night in order to avoid problems associated with the excesses of traffic wardens, LASTMA officials and policemen, but he has since realized that working in the night hour is very dangerous. He reckons, for instance, that so many people have died working at night, particularly on Lagos bridges.

Ogun told The Nation that while ‘rider robbers’ are a big threat, the harassment most drivers suffer at the hands of hoodlums is better imagined than experienced. Describing e-hailing as a dangerous vocation, he said that most of the drivers have learnt to be street wise to escape the harassments meted out to them by hoodlums.

He said: “The hoodlums in Lagos are so brazen that they may even decide to collect your car. They collected my friend’s car and injured him.

“The hoodlums at Alapere, Agege and Ketu are the most notorious as they disturb drivers a lot. They will ask you for money and if you don’t give them or they feel it is not enough, they will damage your vehicle.”

In these places, if your car develops a fault, they would come and attack you and dispossess you of your money, phones and other belongings.”

Ogun reckoned that some of the drivers have learnt to speak the language of the hoodlums, saying: “About two weeks ago, I was ‘caught’ at Alapere and I spoke to them in the language they understand. I said, guy, as I am now, I have N200 in my car and you cannot do me anything because I know who is who. You can have this N200.

“They asked me to bring it. I know the language they understand. If you don’t know the language they understand, they can do and undo.”

Williams Steve works in one of the government agencies in Lagos State. But rather than go home after work, he prefers to stay behind to ‘hustle’. And business was good until he saw the other side of it sometime last year.

He had just closed from work and got a request from a client to take him to a place around Airport Road. He was happy that it would be the last job for the day, not realizing the danger that lurked around the corner.

Very close to the DHL office, he saw that the road was barricaded. As he slowed down, three young men appeared from nowhere. One of them held a gun, another an axe and the third a rod.

“My intention was to reverse the car but they were too close. “The one with a gun was the closest to me. He came to my side with the gun and I had already dipped my hand inside the door compartment where I normally keep a fork. My intention was to bury the fork inside his neck and escape, because he was not aware of what I wanted to do.

“Unfortunately, my passenger had opened the door and was lying flat on the floor, begging them. That destabilised me. I could still have done what I wanted to do and run away, but I would be risking the guy’s life.

“I just withdrew my hand and they robbed us silly, taking everything we had on us, including my phones and wedding ring.

“I eventually went back to Bolt, but they told me that my driver shield had expired the day before.

“To make matters worse, when the robbers went away with my phone, my app was still active. One of the Bolt guys told me that they were the ones that ended the ride. They were aware that something happened.

“The guys that took the phone did not know that it was the Bolt app.”

Another Uber driver, who identified himself simply as Segun, said he was working with one of the big banks in Lagos before he was laid off. Rather than look for another paid job, he decided to use his car for Bolt services since 2018.

He noted, however, that the business is fraught with challenges. Aside security challenges, he disclosed that the commission charged by the operators are outrageous.

He said: “They charge us 25 per cent on each ride and the government too gets its commission. This is not encouraging. Many people who are unemployed are in this business.”

He also disclosed that aside from cars being expensive, the cost of maintaining them coupled with bad roads and traffic jams could make the job frustrating.

“We fuel the cars and maintain them while two per cent of our earnings go to the state government,” he said.

He also said he has had his own share of bitter experiences with ‘rider robbers’.

He said: “I took two riders from Ikosi-Ketu to the African Shrine around 9 pm. When we got to the Lagos State Secretariat, one of them held me by the neck from behind while the other started beating me.

“Thank God my car was not taken away, because I installed security in it and they could not move it beyond the spot where they stopped me. I had to run for my life first.”

Unfortunately, the joy of finding his car was short-lived as the Bolt office did not give him the assistance he thought he was going to get. “They told me that I had to go back to the police station to make an official report as they could not take up the case on their own.

“What baffles me was that Bolt had the app the person used in requesting my services and the necessary information. They claimed that it was an old platform the person used hence they had no information on him.

He said in another instance somewhere in Maryland, he was on robbed on Odo-Iya Alaro Bridge. “They took everything I had. That day, eight cars were robbed on that bridge. They took my phone and even my rider phone. They even had enough time to take my ring and they went Scot free. “Like my experience in Alausa, I didn’t end the ride until the following morning. Bolt called me that they knew I had been on same spot for so long and that I didn’t end the ride. I now told them that I was robbed.”

Another driver, Akin, who had trained as a tiler, said he came to Lagos from Ekiti State in search of greener pastures. But after searching for a job and it was not forthcoming, he decided to join the group of unemployed people that found solace in e-driving; a business he has been doing for the past four years.

He said like many of his colleagues, he had been to hell on occasion. Recalling his first ugly experience in the business, he said: “On that day, I was about to close and I said let me just do this last trip before going home. The guy said he was going to FESTAC town and I was caught in traffic along the Mile 2 Road and my passenger just terminated his journey because of the traffic.

“The journey was not supposed to be more than five to eight minutes, but I got there at 8pm and did not leave the vicinity till 12 midnight.

“Suddenly, I saw a group of boys who told me to wind down and give them money. I quickly did and gave them N1,000 but they told me that it was too small. I added N2,000, which they rejected. I decided to increase it to N3,000 but before I knew it, one of them had broken my glass. They ransacked my car, took the N15,000 I had in it and stole my phone.

“Fortunately, I had N2,000 in my inner pocket. At that point, my fuel was down. It was the N2,000  I used in buying fuel that eventually took me home.

Three days later, I went to withdraw money from my account and discovered that it was empty. I was shocked that they were able to break into my account. I did not give them my bank details. They took N90,000 from my account.

Narrating his recent experience, Emma, another driver, said “at about 12 midnight, he was going to the Lagos Island when he was accosted by some boys around Ojota.

“Thank God we had bottles inside the car. We pulled out bottles and they ran and crossed to the other side of the church. Funny enough, there were policemen very close by, but they didn’t do anything

“The other time I was in Ojota. They asked me to wind down my glass. I knew they wanted to rob. The next thing I did was to put my hand inside my seat as if I wanted to bring out a weapon and they ran.

 

Flip side of e-taxis driving

Akin warned that e-driving job is not the kind one can do for too long because it is only convenient when the driver is still young. When they grow old, he said, the money they make may not be able to sustain them and their families.

He urged the government to work on the roads and reduce fuel price.

He said: “The amount the drivers pay on the cars is huge and it is difficult for many of them to meet up. He disclosed that most of the drivers are not the owners of the cabs, while the majority get them on hire purchase.

He said: “If you do a job for three years and you are unable to save N500,000, that job is no job. I know what I’m saying. I’ve been doing this job for more than five years. You can’t build a house with this job or else you are being deceived. It is not a job that you would say you want to dedicate your entire life to.

“The only way you can make little money is to do it offline. Here, you negotiate with your customers and they pay you your money.”

He disclosed that working offline is better because it is always done through connections. And if there is a surge in business, he said, a driver can make up to N120,000 in a week, “if you are not lazy. The surge comes on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays,” he said.

All the e-taxis drivers who spoke with The Nation agreed that security challenges are the greatest impediment to the business.