A
man, Okeme Arome Romey was thankful as he gave a recount of how he
escaped death again after his nasty encounter with armed robbers on his
way to Abuja from Kaduna state.
Romey wrote,
I CHEATED DEATH…YET AGAIN.
On the seventeenth of May in the year of our Lord two thousand and seventeen, at about 6.20pm, I cheated death…yet again.
I
had just spoken with Arc. Felix and hung up with a wry smile that
didn’t go just too soon. It’s being a while I saw the young man. I was
headed to Abuja from Kaduna in a public car, there was a gentleman who
sat next to my left engrossed in his phone and I peeped and he let me in
on what he was watching. I smiled because I had seen the funny video
before.
I focused on the journey proper as we drove some 20-30min
after taking off, I realized we were at a village called Rijanna and I
let my fibers and muscles relax as we had some 1-2hrs more of driving to
do. Just as I made to relax, I caught a glimpse of a car parked in the
distance by the side of the road with some rough looking men, about 5,
wearing military camouflage tops and other trousers wielding guns, I
recognized a locally made pistol and some bigger AK47 rifles.
They
were obviously the Highwaymen. This mental calculations took only a few
seconds to register and I whispered aloud, Robbers! They were robbing
the occupants of the vehicle as I saw them all seated on the ground
distraught. We had unfortunately ran into them, one of them started
beckoning at us to come closer, we were some 50-100meters away, so i
asked the driver to reverse the car and try to escape. He obliged.
As
the car screeched to retreat, one of the robbers launched after us, he
pointed his gun at the vehicle and squeezed the trigger, there were rain
of bullets digging their way through the thick body of the car with
ease, wheel screen shattered and glasses splintered hither and thither.
I
was under the illusion that we had escaped when out of the blues three
other colleagues of theirs emerged from the bush behind us in a commando
style with AK 47s and opened fire on the car, I was sitting just
directly where the car was taking fire. The driver opened his door and
jumped out, the passenger at the extreme left of me behind the driver
opened his door also and we began pouring out.
Once outside, we
made for the trough on the side of the road in an attempt to escape to
the other carriage of the road leading cars from Abuja to Kaduna. The
robbers didn’t give up just yet, they ran after us and kept shooting,
bullets bounced off the ground close to my feet and flew past my side, I
missed a step and fell, picked myself up and commenced running again.
It was obvious my mind ran faster than my legs.
I kept the
motivation going by saying to me, ” breathe easy and run for it, you
haven’t been hit”. To the glory of God alone, I made it to the other
side of the road and kept running while flagging cars down. I was
finally lucky to get one which stopped, whisked me away to some 2-3 km
from the site of the action where I met the police preparing to respond.
They
had obviously heard the shots and noticed the long queue building up on
the highway. As I was running I could see from the corner of my eyes
how cars were trying hard to turn around, some left their cars in the
middle of the road and jumped out, passengers were pouring out through
windows and skedaddling, people were falling off as others took cover in
the bushes. It was a chaotic sight.
I joined the police van as they drove towards the Drama. When they got there, the robbers had gone. They had escaped.
Was
I infuriated? No I wasn’t. I politely asked the police why this was a
frequent occurrence on this road and one was bold to tell me, under
condition of anonymity, that since the airport activities were
transferred back to abuja, the security apparatuses deployed to the road
within the period when the national airport was closed like frequent
patrols, heavy presence of police and other security operatives,
hovering choppers and escort services, were reduced and cut short
significantly.
He also said they usually had no fuel in their
trucks and that they only fuel they normally allowed in the car was that
needed to drive the car to its stationary spot to give the impression
that security was present on the road, but in the real sense, they were
handicapped because there was no fuel in the truck.
He said they
didn’t patrol any more, they only relied on alarm raised by people to
rally to areas of robbery operations. As if to give credence to his
position and assertions, they car jerked, hiccuped, and came to a halt. I
nodded my head. He said, “fuel don finish”. We were in the middle of
nowhere exposed to the perils that came with the night.
We contributed some monies and one of them luckily got a car that stopped and he went to the next village to get fuel.
Today
I breathed air freely, heard the morning birds chirp, saw the dawn of a
new day, chatted with friends and called loved ones only because I made
it out inexplicably and divinely by the grace of God on the 17th of May
2017, snatched away from the jaws of the snare of death by Jesus christ
himself. If a bullet had hit me and pierced through my skin and into my
lungs or heart in the middle of no where, it would have been a
different story altogether.
I am grateful for yet another
opportunity at life, I wish to tread and wend through her with gratitude
seeking only what is right within my capacity devoid of malice.
The
next day at about 7.30am, the police called to inform me of yet another
attack on that same spot only this time along the road leading from
abuja to kaduna, with two of the victims not so lucky to have come out
alive like we did. They had their brains splattered on the road and
blood painting the ground. They were shot dead.
The Abuja-Kaduna
express road has increased in its notoriety in cutting short lives of
individuals, especially along RIJANNA axis, a fearsome area terrorized
by the Highwaymen. They are usually out to Rob, Kill and Kidnap. Between
Monday to Wednesday, they had kidnapped 5 people, one, an NNPC staff
that was later released after he had paid a ransom.
Narrating his
ordeal when we met at the hospital, he said he was kidnapped around
RIJANNA, taken somewhere where his daily meal was mangos. He claimed two
other abductees had no money to pay for ransom and they were instantly
shot dead in his presence. He didn’t know when he started shouting that
he was rich and had plenty of money to give them, in the end he paid the
ransom and he was released.
Please if it’s not important, do not
use that road once it is 3pm. Do not start your journey too early as
well. In the end, “whoever dwells in the shelter of the most high shall
abide in the shadow of the almighty”, Psalm 91.1.
My story is that of God in his awesomeness.
Thank you.