• Drivers recount near-death experiences
From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
April 30, 2025 bears terrible memories for Mr Sunday Anara, an Abuja-based e-hailing driver. It was supposed to be just another shift behind the wheel for him. Fate tested his courage but providence looked out for him.
The sun had barely set when he pulled over on a quiet roadside to relieve himself.
Everything seemed right until four men sprang from the blues. One of them was clad in a police uniform, a detail that disarmed his suspicion. He thought he was safe. But safety, in that moment, was a mirage.
Anara narrated: “They stabbed my hand, neck, my back and different parts of my body. Then they zoomed off with the car.
“There was this large house nearby that was being guarded by some police officers. They saw what was happening but they could not come. It was when the robbers drove away with my car that I ran there for help. I told them that I was a bolt driver and that I was going to meet my colleagues. That was when they brought a piece of cloth and tied my head. Then they took me to the National Hospital where I spent days receiving treatment.”
His story is part of a growing string of terror that shadows Nigeria’s e-hailing industry, a sector once hailed for its promise of convenience, safety and digital efficiency.
On October 8, 2023, Mrs Joy Ede’s world fell apart. Her husband, Kelvin Ede, an e-hailing driver affiliated with Bolt and Uber in Abuja, had left home for work like every other day. But he never made it back. After their last phone conversation, Kelvin told her he had picked a client from the airport, his phone went silent. Hours turned into a night of panic. “Throughout the night, I kept calling. The phone was off,” Joy recounted, her voice cracking.
The next day, she and Kelvin’s relatives tracked his car to Galadimawa, under a pedestrian bridge in Abuja. There, beside his vehicle, they found his lifeless body.
“We tracked his car. We discovered the first network in Sabo-Lugbe. When we went there, the network went off. We tracked again. We discovered another network in Galadimawa, under the pedestrian bridge. That was where we found his corpse, beside his car. He died. He left me with two children. No job. Nothing,” she said and broke down in tears.
According to Ede, the Police have done little to help her husband get justice while the app-companies have done nothing to assist. “They died off the case. Up till now, nothing. No justice, no support. Just me and the kids.”
Also recounting his tragic experience, Mr. Luca Zibai, a Bolt driver in Abuja, narrowly escaped death after falling into the hands of criminals disguised as passengers.
On May 27, 2024, Zibai accepted a ride request from Dutse Expressway to Ushafa. Unknown to him, the passengers had sinister intentions.
“On that day, I got a ride request and, as usual, called the rider upon arrival. They did not pick up, but I did not realise they were already nearby, watching me,” he recalled.
“They waved me down and explained that they could not answer the call due to network issues. It was around 9pm and we were headed to Ushafa. At Tipper Garage in Dutse Makaranta, they asked me to pull over. I assumed they wanted to buy something or ease themselves. But before I could park, I realised I was bleeding. They had shot me, without saying a word or demanding anything.”
Despite the shock and injury, Zibai managed to fight for his life. “There were three of them, one in front, two behind me. I do not know who pulled the trigger. The one in front struggled with me for the car key. Somehow, I managed to grab my phone and the key and stumbled out, raising an alarm.”
Two of the attackers fled, but the third, in an attempt to steal the car, was stopped in his tracks, the key was already with Zibai. Passersby rushed to help, and moments later, a patrol team of policemen who had heard the gunshot arrived and arrested the suspect.
“The officers took me to Bwari General Hospital, where I received emergency care before being transferred to the National Hospital. I spent two months there recovering.”
However, the pain did not end with the physical injuries. Zibai said the system that should have protected him failed him at every turn.
“While I was still in the hospital, the police quietly transferred the suspect to SARS without informing me. When I was discharged, I reached out, only to be told they had meant to call me. No one ever did.
“I went to the SARS office to present myself as the victim. That was the first time they took my statement. Later, they told me the case had been charged to court, but since then, it’s been one delay after another. Up till now, justice has not been served.
“Even the statement I gave at SARS has disappeared from the records. And the suspects who were later arrested alongside the one that attacked me were released on bail. After everything I went through, the system has left me hanging,” he lamented.
Mr Woko Clinton, an e-hailing cab driver based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State also had a near death experience during a night ride. Three young men he picked up near University of PortHarcurt beat, tied, and robbed him.
“They took my car, my phone, cleared my bank account and the N45,000 I had. I was left on the floor, screaming,” Clinton recalled.
He said the car was not his, he got it from someone on “hire purchase” to pay back in installments. According to him, Bolt sent him a token, but it was not enough to replace even his phone. It took him nearly a year to get back on his feet.
“It was not a good experience at all. I lost my source of income for a long time because I did not have a car to work with. I wrote to Bolt which was the company I was working with at the time but the money they sent me was not even enough to replace my phone let alone the car. It was just recently that I got another car to work with,” he said.
These are not isolated incidents. According to the Amalgamated Union of App-Based Transporters of Nigeria (AUATON), more than 400 attacks on drivers have occurred in the past five years, many resulting in death.
On May 1, 2025, the union submitted a petition to the National Assembly, calling on lawmakers to address what it described as systemic corporate violence and the misclassification of drivers as independent contractors.
The Union’s National President Mr Damola Adeniran, accused companies like Uber, Bolt, and inDrive of neglecting driver-safety. “They do not profile passengers the way they profile drivers. Drivers are murdered, their families left to mourn, and nothing is done,” he decried.
The union is calling for a National Restorative Conference this July to push for legislation that protects drivers, mandates fair compensation, ensures profiling of riders, and provides health insurance and social protection.
Mr Chinedu Peters, a former AUATON official, condemned the double standard in how companies treat their workforce. “They get every detail from us during onboarding, but not the passengers. You see names like ‘Gun’ or ‘Tiger’ on the app. No accountability. And when drivers are killed, nothing happens. And you know one of the popular vehicles we use is this Corolla, which is expensive, about N6 or N7 million.
So those people who target our drivers, they target those vehicles and at the same time, they take life, they snuff life out of our drivers,” he said .
Mr Anthony Ayodele, North Central Zonal Chairman of AUATON, also lamented the plight of e-hailing cab drivers in Nigeria, saying: “In other countries, drivers are considered workers with rights. But here, companies hide behind the label of ‘independent contractors’ and exploit people at will. We want collective bargaining, fair treatment, and laws that protect drivers.”
Across cities like Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja, the roads have become unpredictable terrain. Drivers are stalked by the specter of violence, their trust shattered by incidents that range from armed robbery to assault and the use of a police uniform as bait. The symbolic authority of that uniform, once a mark of order and protection, is now being weaponised by criminals to stage ambushes that drivers cannot see coming.
For many, the physical scars are only part of the story. There’s the mental burden, the sleepless nights, the paranoia, the sense that every trip could be a trap. The trauma runs deep, compounded by the lack of meaningful support from the very platforms that connect them to their passengers. Many drivers say that after such harrowing experiences, they are left to pick up the pieces alone, no insurance coverage, no trauma care, no investigation. Just silence.