A woman, Chizoba Ede, has narrated a sad grass-to-grace and grace-to-grass story that left her penniless and about N1m in debt.

Ede was a very determined woman. Living in Abuja, she hawked snacks for almost two years and saved N60,000. Undeterred and not satisfied with her meagre earnings from hawking snacks, she switched to Okrika – used clothes – business in 2018, selling her wares by the roadside at Otako Market, Jabi in the Federal Capital Territory [FCT].

By June 2019, Ede had included soap making to her business and her capital had grown to about N500,000 and she had her plans well laid out. She planned to rent a small shop so she could fully establish herself and build on her successes.

But disaster struck, killing all her dreams and gains in one swoop.

On the evening of  10 June 2019, while she was returning home from trading, she boarded a cab to her home but the driver and the two passengers she met in the car turned out to be hoodlums popularly known as ‘one-chance’ robbers.

“They collected the N100, 000 cash I realised from my sales that day. They also collected my ATM card and asked for my pin which I gave them. They brought out a POS and inserted the card into it but the network didn’t come up to carry out transactions,” The Punch Newspaper quoted her as saying.

“They thought I gave them a wrong pin and beat me up. After a while, the network came up and they transferred all the N360, 000 from my account. They were communicating with their leader on the phone. They collected my phone and dropped me off around Wuse after the leader confirmed that he had received credit alerts. I later discovered that they equally withdrew N106, 000 from an ATM.”

The native of Enugu State explained she sustained injuries and was rushed to a hospital for treatment. She stated that she broke her leg and underwent bone therapy for three months, picking up about N630, 000 hospital bills.

She said,

“I reported the incident at Otako Police Station. One policeman was assigned to handle the case. Anytime I went to his office, he would tell me he was working on it and would ask me to come back. After one month, he referred me to one officer Femi at SARS office in Abattoir.”

According to Ede, within a week, officer Femi invited her to his office and showed her the details of the POS’ owner who was later arrested.

She said the owner claimed to have given the POS to a lady who helps him to run a supermarket and promised to refund the money transferred by the robbers.

“I also demanded that he would pay my hospital bills. The man was released and afterwards the officer didn’t take the case seriously. I then reported the case at the Complaint Response Unit in Police Headquarters. They asked the officer to bring the case file four months ago but he did not respond until yesterday (Friday).

“He was trying to defend the owner of the POS at the CRU office but I stood my ground. I was surprised why a policeman would defend a suspect. The man claimed he didn’t know how the POS left the shop and promised to produce the lady operating it. We were all asked to report back on Thursday,” she disclosed in a Punch report.

Ede lamented that she had been jobless since the incident happened, urging the police to ensure justice in the matter so she could get back on her feet.

She added,

“All I want is justice. I have been walking around without having anything to do. I am just frustrated. All the money I had is gone. I sold snacks before I could raise my start-up capital. Unfortunately, I am back to square one.”

Punch Newspaper