FCT residents decry high rate of ‘one chance’ attacks
Residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have decried the increasing rate of ‘one chance’ criminals attacks in the city centre.
Some of the victims, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday, said those who boarded commercial vehicles along Kubwa express, Life Camp junction and Berger were more prone to such criminal attacks.
One chance is a type of robbery in which the victim is robbed while on board vehicle, mostly unpainted taxis, operated by the criminals who posed as commercial cabbies.
Precious Neji, one of the victims, told NAN that she was robbed on Feb. 16 the day election was cancelled around Katampe Hillside in Dawaki.
She said she boarded a taxi on her way to church with three men and a lady at Katampe and the driver started asking them for their Permanent Voter Cards and suddenly veered off into a bush path.
“They started punching my eyes and face, they also collected my bag, phone, ATM card, and I gave them the real password of my phone and the pin of my ATM.
“They took N11,000 in my bag after which they dropped me in a bush,” she said.
Similarly, another female victim, Aminat Ahmed, said she and her friend were robbed in a taxi along Dutse market on March 18 at about 3:30pm at News Engineering bus stop in Dawaki.
“After few minutes in the vehicle, the driver wound up the glasses which happen to be tinted and the guy in front ordered us to bend down.
“He requested for our bags and took all our valuables which included three phones, cash close to N15,000 and my friend’s ATM.
“They instantly tried to transfer the money using a POS machine in the vehicle but it was not successful so they later withdrew the money at a bank ATM close to Wuse market.
“After turning around the express like four times, they dropped us behind News Engineering with our bags and zoomed off,” she explained.
Speaking on the matter, ASP Danjuma Taminu, Deputy Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), assured FCT residents that the police were doing everything possible to curb one chance attacks in the territory.
He said some officers had been positioned at strategic places such as parks, under the bridges, lonely roads, highways and other prone places in order to curb the trend.
Tanimu disclosed that an Anti One Chance Squad was established in 2018 when the criminal activities became rampant in the FCT.
“It was established in 2018 by the Commissioner of Police Bala Ciroma, and the office was at Asokoro Police Station under Asokoro Police Division.
“Currently, with less cases of one chance within the FCT, the CP narrowed it down to CID division of the police. Most officers of the squad have been sent to other states to help reduce one chance as they have done in FCT,” he said. (NAN)