A three-man “one chance” gang was apprehended by Lagos State Traffic Management Authority officers on Thursday at Jubilee Bridge in the state’s Abule-Egba region.
In Nigeria, the term “one chance” is frequently used to describe a robbery in which a gang of criminals picks up victims in posh cars with the intention of robbing or defrauding them.
The arrest was made public in a statement on Thursday that was posted on the LASTMA X Twitter and signed by Adebayo Taofiq, Director of Public Affairs and Enlightenment Department.
According to Taofiq, the robbers were arrested by LASTMA personnel alongside their operational vehicle, a painted ‘T4’ commercial bus with number plate APP 406 YE, at the U-turn area of Abule-Egba.
He wrote, “Operatives of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority today arrested three notorious ‘one chance’ armed robbers by Jubilee Bridge around Abule-Egba area of Lagos.
Immediately they were arrested, one of them escaped with a POS machine before the arrival of the policemen.
Preliminary investigations revealed that they were notorious ‘one-chance’ armed robbers terrorising the entire Abule-Egba and its environs.”
The statement added that investigations revealed that they were being chased by members of the public after they noticed that a man was pushed down from their vehicle after robbing him of his valuables.
It read, “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.”
In the statement, the General Manager of LASTMA, Bakare Oki, appealed to the public to be very vigilant and “stop boarding commercial buses by the roadside popularly called ‘So-le’.”
In the video posted by LASTMA on X, two of the robbers while being interrogated, explained how they operate.
Speaking in Yoruba, one of them putting on a blue shirt explained how he removes phones from the pockets or bags of their victims. The man wearing the black top was also identified to be the driver of the bus.
It has been reported that in June 2023, the Lagos State Police Command arrested a three-man one-chance gang who had been terrorising unsuspecting commuters along the Oshodi-Gbagada axis of the state.
