Some residents of Eliowhani town in Port Harcourt, Rivers state have lamented the incessant snatching of mobile phones by youngsters operating in tricycles popularly called ‘Keke’.
The residents who spoke to Metronetworknews in an interview said they are disturbed by the high rate of phone santching in the area.
They appealed to the authorities to come to their rescue.
A business woman, who pleaded anonymity, said her sales girl was robbed of her phone inside her shop in the evening.
“On Thursday July 21, 2022, at about 5pm, one young man came to my shop located at Kings street. He said he wanted to buy 20 cases of pet size soft drinks. My salesgirl unsuspecting any untoward thing to happen asked him to wait inside the shop while she go to the inner store to sort out the drinks. She left her handset on the table in the shop. As she was sorting the drinks, the man told her that he wanted to get a vehicle that will convey them to his house. By the time she came out her phone was no where to be found. She waited for the man to return with cab but he never did. It dawned on her that he must have stolen the handset and took to his heel”.
The woman who is a wholesale dealer of soft drinks, lamented that businesses have been adversely affected by the activities of these hoodlums who have been terrorizing and robbing shops in the town on a daily basis.
She noted that the fear of being robbed is rattling shop owners who now close early.
Another business woman, Ekaette Akpan who suffered a similar fate, said her trainee’s phone was collected in her shop in the afternoon.
“In June, a middle-aged man came to my shop at about 12noon in the morning here at farm road and asked my trainee to lend him a pen to write down an address. She obliged. After he left, She couldn’t find her phone which she kept on the sewing machine. The way the incident happened was strange to us. It was like someone under spell”, the fashion designer said.
Furthermore, a resident who preferred to remain anonymous said her phone valued at N60, 000, was snatched at Owhani street by hoodlums after scaring her with knife.
“My daughter and I went out to buy groceries from a nearby store along Owhani street at about 7pm. On our way, three young men riding in tricycle parked in front of us and one of them wielding a machete alighted from it. He commanded me to surrender my phone or he will inflict machete cuts on my daughter and myself. I had no option than to give it to him. After collecting the phone, he quickly jumped into the tricycle and they sped off.
“I am calling on the authorities to do what they need to do to put an end to this madness”, she appealed.
Another resident who simply gave his name as John narrated how a barber was shot in the eyes for resisting some young men who entered his barbing saloon to rob customers of their phones in the Power Encounter area of the town.
” In May, some teenagers entered a barbing saloon at Power Encounter area and ordered all the customers to handover their phones to them. The owner of the saloon resisted them. This irked their leader who shot him in the eyes According to reports reaching me, the young boy is now blind. His aged father has come to carry him to their village in Akwa Ibom state”, he said.
All attempts to speak with the State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Grace Woyengikuro Iringe-Koko, on the development proved abortive.
