Hoodlums waylay UniAbuja students under pedestrian bridge

Suspected robbers use the cover of darkness to attack students under pedestrian bridge opposite the gate of the main campus of University of Abuja on Airport-Gwagwalada road, Aso Chronicle has learnt. Investigations by our reporter have revealed that the hoodlums lurk under the bridge after night fall and pounce on students as they alight from […]

Suspected robbers use the cover of darkness to attack students under pedestrian bridge opposite the gate of the main campus of University of Abuja on Airport-Gwagwalada road, Aso Chronicle has learnt.

Investigations by our reporter have revealed that the hoodlums lurk under the bridge after night fall and pounce on students as they alight from cabs or buses and rob them.

On Monday February 20, 2017 students of the University of Abuja, came out in their large numbers to block the Giri-Airport road, and protested the killing of one of their colleagues, Miss Simi Boye, a 200 level female History student.

The deceased, according to the protesting students, was crushed by a hit- and -run vehicle on the night of February 19, 2017, under the pedestrian bridge at the permanent site of the university, as she tried to escape from being robbed by some suspected robbers under the bridge.

The protest, which caused a gridlock for almost two hours, forced travellers to disembark from their vehicles to trek, while some were forced to take motorcycles to their destinations and some motorists were compelled to make a U-turn by the angry students, who were carrying sticks and clubs on both lanes. 

Aso Chronicle recalled that the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Micheal Adikwu, who had to pacify the protesting students before the road was opened, promised to ensure such incident never occurred in the future.

The President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), of the university, Comrade, Abdullazeez Ajiboye, who reacted to the protest, noted that the killing was not the first time, saying seven students of the institution had lost their lives while crossing the road. 

“We were forced to protest because this is not the first time our student was knocked down or killed by motorists under the pedestrian bridge. We have lost about seven students who were crossing the road and were killed by motorists,” he said. 

Gabriel Abraham, a 200 level student of the university, who spoke with Aso Chronicle, narrated how  suspected robbers  dispossessed him of money and two mobile phones at  gun point under the bridge.

He said he was returning from evening lectures and while he was waiting to board a vehicle under the pedestrian bridge, three young men accosted him and pointed a pistol at him, demanding that he hand over his phones and money to them.

“In fact, what surprised me on that day was that there were some other students who were also waiting to board vehicle to Gwagwalada, but can you imagine that these guys robbed confidently as one of them shot into the air and later escaped into a waiting vehicle,” he said.

Another student, Gabriel Onyebuchi, a 200 level student of the university, who also Continued from previous page spoke with Aso Chronicle, lamented how suspected robbers accosted him under the pedestrian bridge and dispossessed him of his mobile phone and wristwatch.

He said he left school at about 6:48 p.m. and trekked to the express road to board a vehicle and while waiting, some suspected robbers who pretended to also be students came after him and robbed him at a gunpoint.

“And there was no way I could raise alarm as one of them quietly brought a pistol and showed it to me that I should quietly hand over the phone and my wristwatch to their colleague, which I complied. Besides, even if you raise alarm, the security men at the main gate will not bother to come.

 “And part from the activities of the suspected robbers, there are also this ‘one chance’ people who sometimes stop under the bridge to carry students who are going to Gwagwalada. And before you know it, they will dispossess you of valuables and push you out of the car and speed off,” Onyebuchi said.

He recalled how one of his friends, who he identified as Stephen, also a student of the university was dispossessed of his laptop, phone and undisclosed sums of money by ‘one chance’ after he boarded a car under the pedestrian bridge.

Also speaking with Aso Chronicle, Comfort Benjamin, narrated how she was allegedly attacked and dispossessed of her belongings by robbers at gun point under the pedestrian bridge, after she returned from the weekend.

She said she alighted from a vehicle at about 8:12 p .m. under the pedestrian bridge on that fateful day after she returned from Kaduna and was waiting to board a motorcycle when she was robbed of two hand sets and undisclosed sums of money.   

“One of them even collected my hand bag that contained some money and two ATM cards inside and escaped with it, even when I shouted after them, they ran into a waiting vehicle a few metres away from the bridge and escaped. Imagine that none of the security men at the gate even bothered to come and find out what went wrong,” she said.

A commercial cyclist at the main gate of the university, Yakubu Bala, who also spoke with Aso Chronicle, said suspected robbers sometimes attack students, especially those who normally close from lectures in the evening, while waiting to board vehicles under the pedestrian bridge.

 Our reporter had gathered that prior to the construction of the pedestrian bridge, some students have fallen victim of hit and run drivers while crossing the road, a situation which compelled the institution’s management to request for urgent construction of a pedestrian bridge. But the bridge has become a convenient place where hoodlums operate. 

Reacting, the head Information Unit of the university, Malam Waziri Garba, said that the university management was not unaware of the reported cases of  robbery attacks on students under the pedestrian bridge at the permanent site’s gate.

He said the university had already written to the FCT police requesting it to assist in deploying a police patrol team that will be stationed under the pedestrian in order to checkmate activities of hoodlums under the bridge.

“In fact, even the day some students of the university protested over the death of one of their colleagues, when they blocked the Giri-Airport road, the VC while addressing them said that he had already written to the FCT police command requesting for a police patrol team that will be station under the pedestrian bridge,” he said. 

The FCT Police Public Relations Officer DSP Anjuguri Manzah, told our reporter on phone that the FCT commissioner of police had already ordered that  two police patrol vans be deployed to the area.

He added that the command was also deploying plain clothes operatives that will ensure 24-hour surveillance under the pedestrian bridge as well as Giri-Airport road to checkmate crime along the axis.