Slapped And Robbed

I was bringing out things I bought for the family, when the youngest and shortest of the robbers walked up to me and said: “Man, you think you are smart, now go down on your knees.” At first, I thought it was an old friend playing pranks on me. But after looking hard into his face without a hint of recognition, I looked down to see a gun in his hand and his finger placed gingerly on the trigger.

I quickly obeyed him and went on my knees. He then ordered me to raise up my hands as he proceeded to frisk me for money. He got N45,000 from the back pocket of my trousers and his spirit soared. Then, he asked me how many people were living with me. He apparently was worried that I could have some hefty boys living with me who could challenge them. I said I had only my mom, my wife and kids living with me. But that was a lie, which he discovered when my brother-in-law suddenly emerged from the chicken pen after putting on the generator. He quickly ordered his colleague to go and bring the young boy to join me. He too was made to kneel down and his phone taken away.

At this point the robber asked me for my ATM card, but I told him I did not have one, as, in truth, I had never believed in the ATM card. He thought I was lying and slapped me repeatedly. But when I swore to God that I was not lying, he seemed to believe me. A sense of urgency took over the robbery operation as soon as the third robber, the leader of the gang came into the compound. Like a rat climbing a drain pipe, I was led upstairs and we were joined by his friends. As we got upstairs, my mom, who had just sprayed her room with insecticide, walked straight into the unwanted guests. The leader of the gang told my mom they were in my home for money. My mom’s reply that we did not have money infuriated him and he dealt her a dirty slap and pushed her into a room where she was locked up with three of us. They were left with only my wife and I became worried about what they could do to her. Later, they took me out of the room in which I was locked, to my own room, which they searched for money. They turned my wardrobe upside down in their search. They found no money and described us as elebi (hungry people in Yoruba). Afterwards, they took me to the same room, locked me up again and returned to my wife.

They got more money from my wife than they got from me. They also took all of her jewellery and my camera which was in a bag I kept in her room. All my three kids were fast asleep and because the robbers spoke in hushed tones, they were not woken up. Later, they led my wife out to open the gate for them. They drove my car away. It had my Packard Bell laptop in it. They took the house bunch of keys with them as well as all our padlocks. We were left with no phones to communicate. My wife later opened the door for the three of us locked up in a room upstairs. As they drove out of my premises, they flung my clothes, which I had taken from drycleaners that night, through my car window.

I begged my neighbours for a phone to communicate with my colleagues at work. As I don’t have a head for phone numbers, I could only remember Ademola Adegbamigbe’s phone number. I called him up. He was attending a party in Ado Ekiti. And the move to stop the robbers fleeing in my car to Benin Republic began. At last we contacted the company which installed the tracking device in my car.

The car was disabled by the tracking technology and the robbers fled while still within Ogun state. And on a day in which I saw my mom being slapped, something very difficult to take, at least we could say we put one back on the robbers! By the time the car was recovered by officers from Ajuwon Police Station, the robbers had bought more fuel for their long journey on the popular smugglers’ route of Ijoko, Ogun State, and were playing a tape they found in my car. It was the tape of Pasuma Alabi’s DESPERADO. The title of the album was eeriely evocative. Although I could not stomach the beating of my mom, I realised that things could have been a lot worse. And for this, we are all grateful to God that we are alive and in the knowledge that we could replace all they stole from us. With my phones stolen, I know as a journalist that I have lost a lot of key contacts, but knowing myself, I know I can make new friends.