It’s just a few minutes before 08:00 am and already, I have witnessed a robbery operation.
The robbers? Two plain-clothed Policemen and one wearing their camouflage uniform. The one wearing the uniform was bearing a gun and occupied the entire backseat of a tricycle. The duo on mufti rode on a motorcycle.
Once a commercial bike rider picked up a passenger, the bike conveying the policemen followed in hot pursuit while the tricycle rode behind.
As soon as the bike rider dropped off his passenger, the scruffy-looking policemen parked just right beside and held the commercial motorcyclists’ left hand as they tried to reach for his key.
“Boko Haram, come down!” they ordered while mocking their victim’s accent.
The one in the yellow tricycle (keke) jumped down briefly and beckoned on the Okada guy who is apparently from the North.
“I say, come and see me. Come down first,” the uniformed one with the pot-belly and a rifle ordered.
The other two hunters held down the bike of the bushmeat they just caught. It was shocking to see this because this was an in-road and not the expressway. As a matter of fact, other bike riders were driving past but it looked like there knew this was an easy catch.
“Una arrest me last week na. You don arrest me before,” the victim of this early morning robbery explained.
“No be me arrest you joorh, come see me,” the uniformed one beckoned on him.
The unfortunate young man ran into the Keke and a brief business transaction took place. The fat thief immediately asked his accomplices to let the bike rider go.
How did I witness all of this? I was the passenger of the guy that just got robbed.
“How much you give am,” I asked.
“1000 Naira,” he said with a wry smile on his face.
I tried to check out the Policeman’s tag but the dude was covering his name tag with his fat arm. They all drove off but deep within, I felt so disappointed.
I thought I could have done something to save the day but I couldn’t come to terms with what I should have done. The trip I just concluded was 100 Naira but this man just parted way with ten times that amount for no just cause.
What a mess we live in!
Photo by David Clode on Unsplash
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