Lagos, Nigeria – Operatives from the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) apprehended a three-member ‘one chance’ robbery gang on Thursday at Jubilee Bridge in the Abule-Egba area of the state, according to a statement released by Adebayo Taofiq, the Director of Public Affairs and Enlightenment Department at LASTMA.
The term ‘one chance’ is commonly used in Nigeria to describe a robbery scenario where criminals pose as commercial vehicle operators, picking up passengers only to rob or defraud them.
The statement revealed that the robbers were nabbed alongside their operational vehicle, a painted ‘T4’ commercial bus with the license plate APP 406 YE, at the U-turn area of Abule-Egba. It was disclosed that one of the suspects managed to escape with a Point of Sale (POS) machine before the arrival of the police.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that they were notorious ‘one-chance’ armed robbers terrorising the entire Abule-Egba and its environs,” wrote Taofiq in the statement.
Further investigations disclosed that the suspects were being pursued by members of the public who observed them pushing a man out of their vehicle after robbing him of valuables.
“They drove recklessly in order to evade arrest before they were eventually caught by LASTMA officials controlling and managing traffic around the Abule-Egba axis. The two suspects were later handed over to the policemen from Ile-Epo Police Division for further investigation,” the statement added.
Bakare Oki, the General Manager of LASTMA, urged the public to exercise vigilance and refrain from boarding commercial buses by the roadside, colloquially known as ‘So-le.’
A video posted on LASTMA’s X handle featured two of the apprehended robbers providing insight into their criminal activities during interrogation. One suspect, speaking in Yoruba, detailed how he pilfers phones from the pockets or bags of their victims, while the other, identified as the bus driver, was seen wearing a black top.
This incident follows a similar arrest in June 2023 when the Lagos State Police Command detained a three-member ‘one-chance’ gang that had been targeting unsuspecting commuters along the Oshodi-Gbagada axis of the state.
