Chioma Ogu, a resident of Maryland, Lagos State, faced a harrowing and life-threatening ordeal on Wednesday in Alaka, Surulere, when some five men held her at gunpoint before nicking N255,000 and other valuables from her.

The Maryland resident told FIJ that she was initially headed for Pampers Private School in Iponri before she decided to get some of her clothes from a nearby tailor when the incident happened.

She recounted standing near the canal just before entering the street leading to Iponri Estate when a yellow shuttle, commonly known as korope, pulled up in front of her as though a passenger was about to alight.

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According to her, as soon as a male passenger exited the shuttle, he forcefully covered her face with a piece of clothing and, with the assistance of others, dragged her into the vehicle.

Still confused about the melodrama she had just experienced, the men drove off with her before they began to hit her with their fists.

“The first question the men asked was where my ATM card was. I told them I was not with it, but they soon found it after searching my purse, which they also took alongside my phone. They also took the clothes I got from the tailor. It was for my sister’s wedding,” Ogu told FIJ.

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She explained that after the men found her ATM card, they produced a point-of-sale machine, inserted her card into it and instructed her to enter her PIN, which she did after enduring further physical abuse.

“I put a wrong PIN when they first asked me to put my PIN, but they slapped me so hard and one of them hit my chest. I did it again the second time they asked me to put my PIN and they increased the slaps,” she recalled.

“As they asked me to input my PIN the third time, the driver looked at me with a mean face and told me I had one last shot at life and that if I input a wrong PIN, I would have wasted my life by daring them. With a gun in one hand, I knew he was not joking.

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“At that point, my life flashed before me, and I could not think of what else to do than intone a short prayer before inputting the right password. They made sure they took all the N255,000 in my account. After they did, one of them slapped me and hit me with a gun on my chest before kicking me out of their vehicle.“

She said she was in the men’s den between 1 pm and 3 pm, and it was the longest period of her life because after they took away the gag they had put on her, she kept screaming but no one came to her rescue.

FIJ attempted to contact Benjamin Hundeyin, the Lagos State Police spokesperson, for comments on the matter, but he did not answer his call. As of the time of this publication, he had not responded to the text message sent to his phone.