Ember months robbers take over

BY NSEOBONG DAVID

The return of CP Gabriel Achong has been greeted  by Ember months robbers in Akwa Ibom State. This followed a renewed reinforcement by dupes and handbag snatchers that have swung into full operations of their dubious activities.

These men are said to be using private cars as well as tricycles to trick their victims into their dens, where they go ahead to snatch the personal belongings and cash from their victims, and in some cases, kill the victims.

According to a victim who reported to THE INK, the men used their private car to load passengers from Uyo to Calabar and she boarded the vehicle, not suspecting the rest of the ‘passengers’ in the car.

In her words: “I was waiting at the park to enter a vehicle to Calabar, I saw a taxi loading passengers to Calabar, I entered inside the taxi, and there were three men sitting at the back seat of the car; I entered the front seat.  When we got to Calabar-Itu road, one of the men made a call and pretended to be stranger; he asked me the name of the place we were; and I told him we were driving along Calabar-Itu road.  The man then appealed to the driver to drop him at one “Mfonabasi Clinic”, claiming to be a foreigner from Cameroon.  Immediately after he made the call, my intuition told me I was in a wrong vehicle, as the three men behind me started having some suspicious conversations.  I quickly asked the driver to stop the car that I needed to ease myself.  When he stopped, I alighted from the car and told him I wasn’t going with his car again; he zoomed off.

Another victim who also had her encounter with another set of fraudsters who used the tricycle (keke) narrated her experience: “I entered the keke heading to Itam Junction; I met one guy inside the keke who pretended to be a passenger.  Shortly after I entered, the ‘passenger’ made a call, pretending not to know where he was and asked me to tell him the name of the place, I told him. After the call, he asked the driver to take him to Tropicana, claiming he doesn’t know the place, the driver also pretended he didn’t know Tropicana, and asked me to accompany them to Ibom Tropicana to drop the ‘stranger’ before he could then take me to Itam Junction.  I disagreed with them and quickly asked them to stop and I came down from the keke because I have heard several stories of how they use that method to hypnotize unsuspecting passengers and subsequently robbing them.”

The third victim had the same story to tell, but in her case, they took her to their den, robbed her of her phone and other valuable items she had on her and later dropped her in an unknown place.

They victims appealed to the state government to put adequate security in place to tackle this menace in order to curb the rate of crimes in the state; and members of the public to be on the alert because these 419ners are on the march again.