Dare-devil armed robbers on Tuesday night, attacked a despatch rider, near Five Star Bus Stop alpong Oshodi-Apapa Expressway and disposed him of money collected from customer.
   
The victim, Chinedu Opalachukwu, who was on his way to deliver goods to a customer at Iyana Ejigbo, a Lagos suburb was attacked at about 9:20p.m. when he parked to pick a call from the customer.
 Narrating his ordeal to The Guardian yesterday, Opalachukwu, said he was disposed of N55, 500, which belongs to the company he works for.
   
He said he was coming from Lagos Island to deliver a package to a customer at Iyana –Ejigbo, which was his last product to deliver for the day; he took the Anthony route.
   
He said: “I was about to divert from Isolo bridge at that time. I was directly opposite the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) office at Isolo, when I started calling the customer, explaining why I am coming late to deliver his package.
 
“ I made the call at about 9:20p.m. I was not speeding. Suddenly, I saw two boys beside me, one of them held my bike handle, while the second guy hit me with his hand.  Six more boys came out from nowhere and surrounded me.
  
“Immediately, one of them asked me what I have for them.  I told them that I am a despatch rider, that I only collect monthly salary.  The next thing I heard was a slap on my cheek and they started searching my despatch box.

“One of them brought a gun and told me he was going to shoot me in the stomach, that I was lying, that despatch riders always have money with them.  He gave me another slap and they told me to kneel down, pointing his gun at me. One dipped his hand inside my right pocket and told others in Yoruba language that there was money in my pocket.

“I pleaded with them that the money belonged to the company and if they take the money from me, I will be accused of stealing the money. When he was about to remove the money from my pocket, I held his hand. One of them hit me with an interlock block and immediately, I released my hand and they took the money from my pocket.”
     
When contacted, the Divisional Police Officer of Aswani Police Station, Superintendent of Police (SP), Adeleke Ojajuni, where it was reported, confirmed the incident. He said the police are investigating the matter.
   
He said: “ It was just an unfortunate event.  Apart from the despatch rider, we have several complaints about that particular place and my officers are always patrolling the place. There was a time a truck carrying home appliances broke down around that side, the hoodlums swarmed on the driver and started robbing the truck, but they were arrested because I was on patrol with my men in the area. We recovered the stolen goods and the suspects were charged to court.”
   
Adeleke called on individuals to be security conscious, especially at night as well as report all criminal activities to the police.
 
He assured that his men are working hard to arrest the criminals and bring them to justice.