By Sunny A. David, Onitsha
Armed robbers operating with commercial tricycles popularly known as Keke reportedly robbed many people in the commercial city of Onitsha, Anambra State.
Our correspondent gathered from some of the victims who narrated their ordeal in the hands of the robbers that they operated mostly along the ever-busy Onitsha-Owerri road.
Joseph Mgbeonye, an Nnewi-based trader, disclosed that he was robbed by co-passengers inside tricycle when he came to Mgbuka Obosi market to buy old motor parts. He recalled his encounter with the robbers. “After making purchases I boarded a tricycle to Nnewi. There were two passengers at the back seat and then the driver who was at the front seat. I boarded the keke at the second gate of Mgbuka Obosi market along the Onitsha/ Owerri road and immediately after the Electrical Market, as we were descending the road towards the Idemili fly-over, I was at the centre, in between the two at the back, one of them pulled out a pistol and asked me to close my eyes and I did so immediately.
“He collected N7, 000 and my ATM card and shortly after the fly-over bridge, before the Idemili River, the tricycle halted and I was pushed out while the vehicle sped off. Worse for me was that there was nobody to cry to. The area was so quiet and lonesome and all vehicles that passed through were on high speed,” he stated.
Asked if he made any formal report to the police, he said, “for what? To tell them I was robbed and my wares taken from me at gun-point? They will laugh at me and extort the money that I don’t have. At the end of the day, nothing will happen”.
Also two other victims, Mrs. Nneka Ojiegbe and her daughter, Ngozi, were robbed in a tricycle they boarded at Upper Iweka to Oba.
“We are finished; this is the first time I was robbed. I thought I was discussing with two gentlemen who were by my side in a tricycle. I was sitting in the middle. Just after the Electrical Market, one of them with me pointed a gun on my head and ordered me to hand over my hand bag to him and I did while I faced down wards as he commanded me and my daughter.
The other man at the back immediately collected my daughter’s GSM handset and pushed her down and almost immediately I was also pushed down and they sped off.”
“I had fracture on my left leg and I spent N20,000 in the treatment. I now leap because the wound I sustained has not healed”
Chief Augustine Madu, a civil servant in Nnewi, also disclosed that he came to visit his brother at Onitsha when he ran into the men of the underworld.
