Anthony, a dispatch rider working in Abuja, has told FIJ how a customer assaulted him before seizing his motorcycle over a minor disagreement on Saturday.
@nvthyy, the customer, had announced why he seized the dispatch rider’s motorcycle in an X post he has since deleted. He shared the rider’s name and phone number with the public in the process.
His tweet read:
“Glovo, this is the last time any of your riders will try this with me. This delivery man wanted to leave with my food after I told him to bring it to my apartment,” @nvthyy narrated in the video from the deleted post.
“He will have to come back here to explain why he wanted to leave with my food if he wants his bike back.”
At 6 pm, he tweeted again:
His bike has been given back to him after police got involved. Whatever he told the police to persuade them to come they believed but they came and over 5 witnesses told them what happened they understood the reason why,”
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FIJ has now learned that @nvthyy manhandled Anthony and threatened to beat him with his helmet just before he seized the motorcycle on Saturday evening.
“I’m a dispatch rider working in Abuja. Whenever we have an order to deliver and we get to the destination as shown on the map, we call the recipient to come and receive their delivery,” Anthony told FIJ on Sunday.
“We consider insecurity just because of what is going on in the country right now. Reaching the location yesterday, I called this customer to let him know that I had arrived and was outside the gate. He then told me to come inside, that he was inside the apartment.
“As I told him that I was going to make another delivery while at the gate, this customer ended the call without further explanation. I then notified my company of the current status of the order. I don’t know if he had called my company or if they told him anything.
“He came outside and asked, ‘Where is the rider?’ Then he started to bombard me with blows and beat me up. I tried to protect myself from injury and managed to dodge, getting away from the ground where he punched me down.
“I secured my phone and my keys but he took my helmet and tried to beat me up with the helmet. He threw the helmet at me and I dodged it. I kept my distance and called my company to notify them. He then ordered the man at the gate to take my bike inside the house.”
Anthony said that he tried to reason with @nvthyy but he couldn’t risk his safety. He eventually went to report the incident to a nearby police station because he could not work without his motorcycle.
“He (@nvthyy) even threatened to damage my bike, but I’m glad he didn’t. My helmet was already broken,” Anthony narrated.
“When the police officers came to the house, they asked that we all go back to the station. @nvthyy then said that there was no need to go to the station. He was trying to settle there without going to the station.
“He accused me of trying to leave with his food, but I could not have done that. Unless the company decided to recover the delivery, I could not take that action by myself. The customer could easily report me to the company for bad behaviour. I have been working with this company as a dispatch rider for almost four years, and this was my first encounter with a customer in this manner. He would report me and then the company would take action against me.
“The customer is always right, but why would he attack me like that? I was concerned about getting seriously injured in a place I was not familiar with. It was a location where I knew no one.”
Anthony said that @nvthyy reached a settlement with him and paid for the helmet he broke. The dispatch rider also said he suffered minor bruises from the encounter.
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