According to Dennis, who narrated the experience to KayNaija's reporters, two armed men had snatched his motorcycle from him at gunpoint. He said:
“I took these two men, not far older than me, from Ubogo Junction in the morning of Wednesday May 21. We were heading to an agreed destination when they asked me to stop at the Jeremi Stadium. There, one of them pulled a seeming locally fabricated pistol. Pointing it at me, they asked me to come down from the bike after taking my money, over N2500 in my pockets.
“I did yield to their threat, but I jabbed the one holding the gun as they tried to make away with my bike. He fell, losing hold of the gun in the process. This happened at the Agbowhiame Road right in from of the Jeremi FM Radio Complex. The JFM gateman was watching the unfolding drama, with his big Alsatian dog barking. I called on the gateman to assist in fighting the robbers, but the sight of the gun discouraged him.”
Dennis further narrated that the robber who tried to escape with his bike was forced to return when he noticed that he (Dennis) had held his partner in crime to a fierce combat.
“With two against one, they overpowered me and zoomed off with my bike after one of them had hit me hard on my head with the gun three times, leaving me bleeding seriously from three cuts on the head.
“Luckily, a fellow Okada rider came along. I explained to him and we chased after them. At Agbowhiame, we were told they headed towards Erhuwaren. We followed that through Kiagbodor to Oviri Olomu where we sighted them on the Oviri-Ewu Road. The community vigilante communicated their Ewu counterparts, but they diverted towards Okparabe and we pursued without their knowledge.”However, the robbers on sighting the community's vigilante on their trail had to reverse by Okparabe community but the chasers had double-crossed them, waiting to apprehend the criminals in what was a road show.
“We were already on that road, so they were now riding towards us. I had disguised with the cap belonging to my Okada colleague. So the robbers had no idea I was the one they had robbed and now chasing them.
“As they approached, I disembarked from the bike and started moving quietly towards them on their right of way. With a machete I borrowed from a local farmer, I cut the one riding my bike on one arm. They both fell from the bike and we and the locals descended on them.”The incident was later confirmed by the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Celestina Kalu, who also gave the names of the apprehended robbers as Paul Ogilo and Victor Philip. The Delta PPRO, however, described the gun carried by the robbers as a “pistol like”, while adding that the victim’s bike as unregistered.
The victim, however, had this to say:
“What they pointed at me when they took my bike was a shot gun. And they meant to shoot me. My luck was the gun malfunctioned. I would have been dead.”
“When Police arrived the scene the robbers had been badly injured, the motorbike recovered and suspects confessed to the crime and others. Preliminary investigation is on,” DSP Kalu added.The police had retained the suspects and the victim's bike in the Divisional Police Headquarter. Dennis, who spoke to KayNaija.Com at his place of residence, Onigbo, is still on his way to full recovery from his battered head that has been stitched. His final words to us was an appeal to the police to release his bike to him so that he can resume his 'okada' job that sustains him.
“I just acquired the bike. I have valid proof of ownership and I appeal they release the bike to me to enable me continue with my okada work which is what sustains me,” he stated.
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