Photo: Lady narrates how robbers stole her ATM and cleaned out her account

A primary school teacher identified as Evi Iwaha
pictured above, has narrated how some robbers
attacked her,took her ATM card and cleared her
account in the early hours of Saturday January
30th.
She narrated her story to The Nation. "It
happened a few minutes to 6.00am; I’d
boarded a bus supposedly to Oshodi from
Obanikoro. No sooner had the bus moved
than they sprang into action. The first thing
they did was grab my phone; ‘What do you
do? Where are you coming from?’one of
them asked. I was hopeful that they’d take
pity on me, having told them I was just a
primary school teacher.
Why bother to ask if it meant nothing to
them? After rummaging through my wallet,
they found two ATM cards and some cash.
The question that followed hit me with a
bang. ‘What’s your pin number?’
Instinctively, I hesitated for a while, but a
resounding slap on my face soon got me
spilling it out. These guys were actually
going to do the unimaginable. They were
going to clear my account. To think that I
was about experiencing stories that had
seemed far away. I looked up in time to see
another member of the gang, sitting in the
front seat. They called him officer. I don’t
know if he was some military officer or if
the name was just a code name. Even
though I was still a little dazed from the
slap, I couldn’t but notice the gun that
hung loosely in the man’s hand, as he
spoke to his colleague. He quickly handed
the ATM cards to another member who
played the role of a bus conductor. The
driver slowed down at my inquisitor’s
command, and the bus conductor jumped
off the bus on his way to emptying my
accounts. I silently wished I had payed the
money into my friend’s account, he had
asked me to do so to avoid spending it,
since I’m saving towards paying my rent.
Meanwhile, while we awaited the arrival of
the messenger, the bus kept going round
and round. In the process, the two women I
met on the bus were told to disembark, and
two others, a guy and his girlfriend were
picked up at the next stop. They were
lucky, as they didn’t have any ATM card on
them. They were ripped of their phones and
the only one thousand Naira note the guy
had on him. They had also searched the
lady who came on at the same time as I
did. Obviously they didn’t get much from
her. I was their sacrificial lamb. Soon my
phone beeped – an indication that the
money had been withdrawn. Then they
drove back to the spot where they had
dropped off the bus conductor, picked him
up and drove off. By all means, it was a
smooth operation, and we were home-
bound now. I silently prayed that they
dropped me off at a safe place. All along, I
didn’t know where we were because I had
been sitting on the floor of the bus.
Suddenly, the bus pulled to a stop and we
were all told to alight. I discovered that
they had dropped us at the toll-gate. My
inquisitor who had promised to give me
transport money to take me home had
either forgotten or couldn’t care less. They
zoomed off as soon as we were all out of
the bus. I stood there thinking of how to
get to my place in Gbagada, until one good
Nigerian who happened to be passing by
came to my rescue by giving me N100, my
exact fare home.”she said