Diary of a Lagos Commuter: One Chance Saga

I never would have imagined the helpless situation I found myself in the early hours of Thursday morning (29th, October). It was an eventful day. Let me tell you how.

I have heard of people being victims of ‘one chance’ in Lagos. On this faithful Thursday, I had my own baptism of ‘one chance’ robbery at Salvation bus stop, Opebi, Lagos. In a split second, the yellow and black danfo passenger bus became a robbery scene. It was like a drama being played out, only that this time it was real. You wouldn’t want to imagine the thoughts flying round my head as I was pushed to the floor of the bus. The other unfortunate female passenger and I were stripped of all our valuables, including ATM cards. I had two ATM cards. As a matter of fact, our pin numbers were gotten from us and all monies withdrawn! Yes account totally drained and one of the villains asked if I would marry him! In his words “…se o ma fe mi? mo mo pe oni fe femi nitori ise ti o ti ripe mo n se” (will you marry me? I know you won’t want to because of the work you’ve seen me do)” I just looked on and shook my head… “But s’o mo pe o le change mi” (But you know you can change me) he continued. I nodded (all I just wanted was to be released). Having done all, we were eventually released at Adeniyi Jones, a few minutes away from the Robbery scene. My day was upturned; I came down with a terrible headache. I couldn’t shake the scene off my head… the decision on which means of transportation to take back home was difficult to reach. I waited at the bus stop for some minutes before I eventually flagged down a cab…the 100naira cash I was left with was sufficient to take me home.