Thieves steal from a girl on her 18th birthday in Lagos

Phoebe Emokpaire, the daughter of Maintenance Manager at The Guardian Newspapers who was celebrating her 18th birthday, found herself in a state of profound distress last week following a harrowing incident.

She was the victim of a robbery at Toyota Bus Stop, situated along the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, in broad daylight, perpetrated by individuals commonly known as one-chance robbers.

This unfortunate event transpired on the occasion of Phoebe Emokpaire’s 18th birthday.

During the incident, her Samsung Galaxy phone was forcibly taken from her possession, and she was callously ejected from a moving Danfo bus at approximately 8:30 a.m..

In recounting the distressing experience, she provided a detailed account of the events.

Phoebe boarded a bus destined for Palm Grove from Sadiku Bus Stop, where she found herself in the company of three male individuals and two females.

Notably, one of the female passengers disembarked prior to Toyota Bus Stop, while the second lady alighted at the aforementioned location.

“So, the bus suddenly stopped and the conductor asked the two men in the bus to come down and help him push the bus. They did and it started working.

“The conductor asked me to put my phone in my bag because there’s a fight going on in front. So, as he was pretending to put something beside me, he started pushing me and I asked him to stop so I could help him push it inside and immediately, I checked my bag and couldn’t find my phone.

“They asked me to alight, that they were no longer going to Palm Grove and that they wanted to go to Airport Road. Then I started shouting about my phone. So, they pushed me out of the bus and changed direction,” she explained.

Additionally, yesterday, Adejoke Idebi, a well-known Nigerian Snail vendor, and several others narrowly avoided being abducted when they got on a bus headed to Charly Boy from Oshodi.

Recounting her experience, Idebi shared that she had boarded the bus in the morning yesterday, thinking it was going to Charly Boy bus stop, only to realize less than 10 minutes into the journey that they were in the wrong bus.

Sharing her story, she said: “I boarded a bus from Oshodi this morning(yesterday) to Charly Boy bus stop. Less than 10 minutes to the journey, little did we know we entered the wrong bus.

“But God is kind, how the Nigerian Police detected that we were in distress, is what we don’t know. We thought they were pursuing us, but we didn’t know they were coming to save us.

“Around Anthony, there was gunfire, I was scared. Our driver started running at a very high speed. He didn’t drop us at our destination. We started heading towards Iyana Oworo. The police didn’t stop either. I began to cry because the speed was too much.

“Then, there was a sharp turn, which the driver negotiated at top speed. We fell from the moving vehicle onto the expressway. Other vehicles were coming behind, but God saved us. Though I was injured, God saved us.

“I’m so grateful to God because he is good and kind to me. To the Nigeria Police, thank you.”

Benjamin Hundeyin, a spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, discussed the recent arrest of one-chance robbers, expressing determination to keep apprehending such criminals.

He acknowledged that eradicating crime entirely may not be feasible, but he highlighted that there has been a decrease in criminal activities in the state, which is a positive development.

He further stated, ‘The case of the crime and shooting along the Charley Boy has not been reported but we will investigate.”