· Residents urge concrete action
By Sarah NEGEDU
Last week’s reported mob action against suspected one-chance robbers again paints the dangers of public transportation in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory.
Passengers are increasingly exposed to violent crimes, abductions, and even death while commuting in the FCT.
Though the FCT Administration in collaboration with security agencies have been working to combat this wave, incidents of one-chance robbery continue to make headlines with many residents becoming victims of criminal groups, who operate using dangerous weapons, including knives, cutlasses, and guns.
Only on August 6, 2025, the police from the FCT Anti-One Chance Unit rescued a woman being pushed out of a moving vehicle along Kubwa Expressway. Six suspects were arrested, one was killed in the ensuing chase, and the victim taken to a hospital in Mabushi.
The FCT Police spokesperson, Josephine Adeh, in a statement, said, “In a sustained onslaught against armed robbery, one chance” criminal syndicates within the Federal Capital Territory and its environs, operatives of the FCT Police Command attached to the Anti-One Chance Unit have arrested six suspects, neutralised one, rescued a victim, and recovered their operational vehicle.”
According to the statement, following a hot chase and a fierce gun duel, the suspects were forced to halt. Five were arrested at the scene: Jude Simon of Mararaba, Emmanuel Akor, Daniel Benson, Uche Thomas, and Tope Ola, all males from Mpape who had been on the Command’s wanted list. Their operational vehicle, a dark grey Toyota Corolla, was recovered.
Earlier in July 2025, Freda Arnong, a Ghanaian national closed from her house fellowship near the CBN Institute in Maitama, lost her life. She boarded a taxi around 7:00 pm which she believed was a normal commercial vehicle, but it turned out to be one operated by a one-chance gang.
The deceased’s sister, Arnong Titus Ememobong, who narrated the tragic incident on Facebook on Monday, July 8, 2025, said after being driven around the city, beaten and forced to unlock her bank app, she was thrown out near Moshood Abiola Stadium.
She was later rushed to the National Hospital, Abuja, but succumbed to her injuries.
She called for the implementation of a driver and vehicle authentication transport system in the FCT to curb the menace in the city.
Again, in mid-July 2025, a young woman, Grace Godwin, boarded a commercial vehicle around 8:53 p.m. in Mabushi, believed to be one run by one-chance criminals.
Her family received a ransom demand later that night. Her body was found near Iya Abubakar Street in Jabi at around 6 a.m. and she was pronounced dead at the National Hospital.
The Friday mob action seems to be a response to the growing violence, as residents grow weary of seeing more victims.
On Friday, at the Chicken Junction, in the Wuse II area, two suspects operating in what witnesses say was an unmarked taxi attempted to dispossess a female passenger shortly after she boarded.
As the victim raised the alarm, passersby dragged the suspects from the vehicle and began to beat them. Police operatives intervened in time to rescue them from lynching.
Josephine Adeh, who confirmed the Wuse 2 incident, said operatives responded swiftly to a distress call and found two persons lying on the ground around Chicken Junction, Wuse 2.
They were rescued and rushed to the National Hospital for medical treatment and the Commissioner of Police has since ordered a full investigation.
The attack on suspected one-chance robbers seems to be rising as in February this year, an angry mob killed two suspected one-chance robbers along the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Expressway in Abuja after they allegedly robbed and pushed a female victim out of their moving moving Volkswagen vehicle.
An eyewitness said, one of the suspects was intercepted first and beaten severely before being set ablaze.
“I went closer and saw that he was just sitting in the gutter. I started recording again, and people were asking him questions. He could not answer before he was set ablaze”.
Beyond one-chance robbery, commuters also contend with reckless touts who turn the roads into death traps.
In late July, tragedy struck at Mabushi Under Bridge when a family of five was killed in a crash caused by touts chasing after vehicles in the busy interchange.
Eyewitnesses said the driver, in an attempt to avoid a group of touts harassing motorists, lost control of the car. The vehicle somersaulted several times before bursting into flames, killing all 5 occupants including parents and their children.
Though the FCT Administration is optimistic that the newly constructed bus terminals will tackle the menace of one chance, residents may have to wait their full operations before they heave a sigh of relief.
