On Friday 24th June 2018 I took my kids to school at River Valley, Berger, along with my younger sister whom I dropped off at a particular bus stop called New Garage (Just a stone”s throw to Berger bus stop) at exactly 6.50am heading to her shop and I left to my kids’ school. After dropping them at school I drove straight home because I was not feeling good healthwise since a few days before. As soon I got home, suddenly a call came into my phone from a strange number and the voice I heard was my sister’s voice that I just dropped off at the bus stop, she sounded so distressed and I was asking what happened and she said she entered one “chance bus” (This means commercial bus operated by criminals pretending to be a normal bus), then I asked for her where about at the moment and she said they dropped them off at a place close to Alausa along that Berger to 7up. I immediately rushed down to the place and met her with 2 other ladies. I felt for her because she was left with nothing but empty hand bag and empty wallet, her earrings were taken off, wrist watch, and wedding ring, including the wig on her head. The worse is that she couldn’t see because they have used a substance mixed with Aboniki (harsh Ointment with 100% menthol) in her eyes so that she cannot see, I met her with 2 other ladies in same state and 3 of them where dropped off at the same place. Immediately I picked her up to go to the bank to block the ATM that was taken but the bank had not opened yet, but I was able to call my own account officer at a Skye bank to block the ATM, which he responded to immediately and got it blocked while we waited at First Bank at Alausa till 8am when they resumed and immediately the door was opened and customers were allowed to go in I took my sister inside and she gave them the account number to check and block the account and ATM and behold N300,000 had already been withdrawn from the account and we asked how come and the bank said they (robbers) transferred N150,000 to another account and withdrew N150,000 with same ATM card which made it N300,000. The account in question belongs to her husband who is based abroad but she operates the account with ATM and Mobile app in her phone so because of this First bank couldn’t do much because the account is not her personal account, neither my own account. So this is my sister’s story:
According to her, about 2mins after I dropped her at the bus stop she boarded the next bus that came which was this normal yellow Lagos commercial bus (danfo), there was a Police Man in from of the bus, 2 ladies and others were men, but the bus was not filled up. As they drove off just about 3mins she noticed the ladies where not talking and they were facing downward with their eyes closed without talking and immediately about 3 guys rushed her bag from the back sit and she started screaming and they dragged her to the back seat lay her down on the ground and started matching her and asking where the money is and they brought out her ATM cards which is UBA, Skye Bank and First Bank ATM which belongs to her husband, then they asked for her cards’ PIN numbers, she gave them a wrong PIN and they quickly brought out a POS Machine which was handed over to them by the Police Man sitting in front of the bus on the passenger’s side, they checked the PIN with the POS and found out it was a wrong PIN she gave and they started beating the morning light out of her, so she was forced to give them the correct PIN and it was confirmed with the same POS and they took her phone and used the First Bank App in her phone to transfer to another account, and immediately one of the boys alighted from the bus close to Alausa, which she believes he went to make withdrawal from the ATM machine. The next thing was that she heard the Police Man in front passing a substance to them that they used on her eyes. According to my sister, she said that at times the Police Man will tell them words like ‘maintain, maintain, maintain (which is a slang to say calm down) and one of them will use his hands to close up her mouth….
This is a story everyone must read to be careful because this seems it happens every day but you won’t know until it happens to you or your relation. How safe are we? 2 things surprises me in this matter: 1. Police Man in front of the vehicle. 2. The POS Machine.
This might be a fake police man or real one, anytime I go out with commercial bus and I see a policeman or a military man in front of any of the vehicle it gives me the confidence of security that the bus is free…..no more of such assumptions.
The POS machine in question is obviously given by a bank, so how come same POS is now being used by Criminals. They should be able to have a record of when it’s used and who it was issued to, to trace the culprits
Those guys in the bus are the people that goes to the ATM themselves to make withdrawals, which must be confirmed before their victims are released to go. Can’t they be traced through the bank’s CCTV?
I took my sister to the Hospital and one of her eyes is seriously in a mess and the optician was bitter about it because she couldn’t explain what was used, but she is trying her best after patching up one of the eyes that was badly punctured and we are still praying her eyes would be restored fully.
