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From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has become a hotbed for crimes. Criminals wreak havoc on unsuspecting residents with reckless abandon, leaving victims with harrowing experiences. When security agencies expose their tactics, they restrategise and continue with their insidious acts.
These people who are identified as ‘one chance’ criminals, disguise as commercial drivers and passengers in mostly unbranded vehicles. Some of the vehicles bear tinted glasses and some do not.
To avoid being suspected, they station female passengers in the front seat and one or two others in the back seat. Sometimes, pregnant women play a key role in the business.
When that is not available, their female partners insert clothes and silicone bellies to deceive unsuspecting commuters of safety.
These men of the underworld who operate mostly during rush hours, are mindful of their victims. Women are mostly their targets. The word mercy does not exist in their dictionary. They assault their victims, snatch their belongings and push them out of the moving vehicles.
Also, most victims with enough money in their accounts are kidnapped and forced to transfer all their funds into different accounts. Some even move around with Point of Sale (POS) devices.
Strong-willed, difficult victims are either stabbed mercilessly or killed in the process. Repeated assurances by the government to residents remain mere hot air.
The business is so profitable that these thieves have refused to let go. The more they are arrested, paraded and imprisoned, the more new crops of thieves spring up.
The slow pace of justice by security agencies has nudged FCT residents into taking the law into their hands to carry out jungle justice.
Chigbo Princess Mediatrix, a lawyer and human rights advocate, did not survive her encounter with criminal elements. On January 5, 2026, she was abducted, killed and her body dumped along the Kubwa Expressway, near Dawaki, opposite Gwarimpa Estate.
Preliminary reports suggested that she may have fallen victim to “one-chance” criminals. Her family members said the circumstances surrounding her demise pointed to a violent encounter.
Mediatrix’s sister, Maureen, who served as president of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers, said she observed discrepancies between the suspects’ statements and actual facts. She pointed out contradictions that must be resolved during investigation.
She said: “We are not dealing with suppositions. A homicide investigation will examine all loopholes to establish the truth.”
According to her, her sister fought for justice, advocated for the poor, and “we will not let her struggle be in vain. We want justice for her and for humanity, so the dead can rest and the living live in peace.’’
Also, the International Federation of Female Lawyers (FIDA), who demanded justice, described the incident as a “searing indictment of the growing insecurity in the nation’s capital”, and called for urgent action to curb the rising wave of violent crimes.
FIDA Abuja Chapter chairperson, Chioma Onyenucheya-Uko, charged the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, to declare an immediate security emergency against “one-chance” operators and to establish a multi-agency task force to dismantle these criminal networks.
Onyenucheya-Uko said: “While we mourn deeply with the family, colleagues, and loved ones of our fallen colleague, we condemn in the strongest possible terms, this heinous and dastardly act.
“No society that claims to be governed by law should tolerate the routine abduction, assault, and murder of its citizens, particularly in its capital city.
“It is important to note that this incident is not isolated. It forms part of a disturbing pattern of ‘one-chance’ operations that have continued unabated, despite repeated public outcries, media reports, and citizen distress.
“The time for expressions of sympathy has passed. What is urgently required now is decisive, coordinated, and visible action.”
She, also, called on the FCT authorities to install functional CCTV surveillance along major transport corridors to regulate commercial transport operators.
In addition, Onyenucheya-Uko stressed that the safety of citizens, especially women and vulnerable commuters, should be prioritised as a constitutional obligation.
“When officers of the court are abducted and murdered, it sends a chilling message to every resident,” she added.
The case of Mediatrix is one too many. Before her ugly encounter, Margaret Ogbor, a journalist, said she did not believe that a day would come when she would be victim of a ‘one-chance’ operation. She felt it was just a fairly tale, not until when she received a doze of the wickedness of criminal.
Ogbor said her life’s savings and money meant for her parents’ medical bills were collected by these men amid heavy torture.
She said: “Mine happened last year. I had just collected some contributions that I was supposed to pay for my mum and dad’s hospital bills.
“I was supposed to take a cab but it was raining and I knew that where I was waiting to get a cab was not a good spot. So, when that vehicle stopped, I entered not knowing that there was someone hiding under the chair. The guy squatted. I didn’t see because it was dark.
“The driver had one person in front. When I got in, I closed the door. But I noticed that the doors were wound up and glasses there were tinted.
“That was when the person next to me sat down. I told them politely to please wind down the glasses because it was begining to feel stuffy. That was when they brought out guns and pointed at me.
“They took my bag and ATM card. They brought out POS and withdrew my money. I had almost one million naira in one account. They took that one.
“They collected the contribution of N200,000 from my bag. They took my phone, jewelry and other things they liked.
“They threatened to sell my body parts. I did not think they were serious. It was surprising to me. I felt they were not sounding serious to me. But they kept on driving outside Abuja. They were approaching the city gate axis leading in Lugbe.
“So, I just decided to speak to one of them sitting by my right side because he was a bit calm. I noticed that he had some level of empathy in him.
“I told him that he should not let them do anything to me because he it is not just harming me but my parents who are in the hospital as it would break them if the found out that I had been kidnapped.
“As I was talking to one, another one was hitting me with the gun. At the time the person in front had come to sit beside me to enable him continue ransacking my things before heading to Gwagwalada.
“The guy told his friends that the night was still young and that they should drop me. They wanted to drop me there, but he refused and instructed them to take me back to town. That was how they took me back to town and gave me N2000 out of my money. That was how I was released.”
Ogbor said since after that incident, boarding a public cab had become a difficult choice to make because of the fear of the unknown.
“I still have the trauma from that incident. It has been very hard taking public transport. At some point, I was spending the little money I had on Uber and Bolt. But then, this is Nigeria, you have to face reality.
“I had to go back to public transportation. I just gradually got used to the whole thing. But it took me over a year to get used to sitting with people in public vehicles and not feel frightened.
“You cannot say people fall prey to this kind of incident because they are not careful enough. It is just God’s protection that keeps us moving,” she said.
While Ogbor survived the ordeal, Greatness Olorunfemi, just like Mediatrix, did not make it.
Greatness a staff member of Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), died as a result of multiple injuries she suffered in the hands of ‘one chance’ daredevils.
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Her death sent shockwaves across the country and exposed the porousness of the FCT. A co-passenger with Greatness, Kike Okere, who narrated the unfortunate incident, said after closing from work on the rainy day, she had to enter a petrol station waiting for the rains to subside.
Okere, a community advocate, said because of the population, commuters were scampering to get vehicles, she said she got to the tower of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), to relax.
Finally, she got a vehicle which had Greatness inside. Before she could heave a sigh of relief that she had finally boarded a vehicle, the unimaginable happened. They were waylaid.
“There was no vehicle; it was just a vehicle going to Dutse that was available. Then, a vehicle came calling Kubwa. Already, there were people inside; there was a guy in front and one at the back. Because the rain was still threatening to come down, we just entered the vehicle.
“Immediately, the vehicle moved. On getting to the Masalachi (Mosque) junction, Greatness noticed that the door was not locked properly.
“She told the driver to stop the vehicle so that she could lock the door because I entered before her and she was seated beside me. Immediately she turned, she noticed that the handle was not there. The thing caught my attention.
“By the time we turned to face the driver, the glasses were already wound up and they were tinted glasses.
“The guy in front just pushed his seat backward and brought out a long gun while the one beside me brought out a short gun. They started beating two of us. They immediately collected our bags, phones and ATM cards.
“As they were beating me because they saw a security pass, Greatness was crying, pleading for help. They were just hitting her.
“The one in front did not have pity at all. He was just hitting her. It was her ATM card they first collected. But they collected all the ATM cards. They asked her for the pin number of her ATM card and she gave them the pin. They asked me, too.
“We complied with whatever they told us. I do not know if there was any money in her account. I did not know what really happened. They just said ‘no be you we dey find’ and pushed her out of the vehicle.
Some good samaritans who saw Olorunfemi soaked in her blood took her to Maitama General Hospital, Abuja. The management allegedly refused to treat her until they produce a police report. In the process of waiting, she died. The hospital however denied that.
Greatness was billed to travel abroad to further her education, according to the father, Rev Joseph Olurunfemi.
Olurunfemi, who is the General Overseer of Christ Restoration Gospel Centre in Lagos, said the late Greatness was his first daughter who dedicated her life to humanity. The cleric who said he had accepted God’s verdict, called on the authority to fish out killers of his daughter.
He said: “My Greatness is not dead! Her works remain here with us and by the grace of God the family will continue to advance her society is safe for living and that workers in our hospitals respect the laws and victims of violence, robbery, accident should be treated without condition or protocols.
“Therefore, I appeal to all friends, families, colleagues, the church members and organisations that have been grieved to sue for peace and allow the government to carry on their investigation accordingly.
“We cannot bring Greatness back to life but actions and decisions can be made to correct errors in our medical organisations as well as bringing positive change to the security systems. This could serve as one of the legacies for the death of my daughter.”
On October 3, 2023 a victim who preferred to be known simply as Deborah, was abducted. She said she spent over seven hours with her kidnappers in their vehicles.
“I was coming back from work. Normally, I do not tell drivers where I am going. I ask and they tell me where they are going. But in this particular incident, I asked but the driver did not respond.
“I told him that I was going to Dutse, he said I should enter. I asked him where his last bus stop would be. He started stammering. We were at Arab Junction.
“He really did not answer. I just told him I was going to Power line, in Kubwa. Immediately I got in I started feeling uneasy. I checked the doors to wind down. But I did not see anything.
“They were all spoilt. The guy by my side was looking funny. The other one was scrolling through his Facebook account. I tried to look at the name he used in registering the Facebook but I could not see it.
“I do not think they even got to Phase 3 along Kubwa when the driver rolled up the glass of the other guy. He wanted to wind up my glass. I told him not to but he was adamant and he did it.
“The guy next to me said ‘you have entered.’ He tried covering my mouth, I resisted. I struggled to put my leg on the steering and the car began to wobble.
“I kept doing that because I heard police siren. I do not know if the police officers noticed something. After a while, the van just drove past and that was when I knew that it was over.
“I just had to succumb. One thing I noticed was that immediately I entered I was the third person. You know that these public taxes love picking a fourth passenger. But that did not happen in my case.
“They left the service lane completely. They made me sit in the middle. The woman in front pushed her seat backward to press me.
“They collected my bag and the money inside. They asked if I was the owner of the ATM I said I was not. After much beating I had to tell them that I was the owner of the ATM.
“They were able to withdraw all the money. They said they were leaving Abuja and told me that I did not know where I was.
“The woman in front got down. Immediately she alighted, the driver zoomed off. She collected the money they withdrew with my card. When she called them, they drove back and picked her.
“They made a mistake by giving me their phone to start calling my people. I called my sister immediately. When they knew they made a mistake they told me to end the call.
“They gave me my own phone to start calling my people to send me money. Even when I told them I did not have people to call, they went through my phone to call people.
“They instructed me to unlock my big phone to check if I had a bank App but I didn’t. I had a financial app. I do not why they didn’t see it. After driving for about three hours, they told me they were no longer in Abuja and that they were taking me to one Alhaji to sell my body parts.
“My people kept sending money to my account and they were withdrawing with their POS. Around 2am, the place they were collecting money said they had ran out of cash.
“The guy at the back seat said they should go to Wuse 2. They dropped me off. They borrowed money from my account. I do not know how they did it. But they are very good with banking Apps and codes. They got a loan from a bank.”
Piqued by the reoccurring incidences, the Global Association of Female Attorneys (GAFA) and the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) have implored the FCT authorities to wake up to their responsibilities by sanitising the city.
GAFA International President, Chinelo Virginia Iriele, charged security personnel to fish out those perpetrators in the FCT and beyond.
She pointed out that all lives must be treated equally regardless of social status or political affiliations.
“The protection of the rights of the less privileged, and the pursuit of justice for indigent persons calls on the relevant authorities to act decisively.
“In line with our core mandate of service to humanity and our longstanding commitment to providing pro bono legal services to the indigent, we earnestly demand that the perpetrators of this heinous crimes be exposed and made to face the full consequences of their actions.
“Accountability is not optional; it is essential. It serves as a deterrent and a necessary step toward curbing the recurring cycle of violence in our society.
“Nigerians deserve leadership that prioritises their peaceful existence and upholds the sanctity of human life. May our leaders use their respective offices wisely, responsibly, and humanely for the collective good of the citizens.”
Also, the Director General, Institute of Medical and Health Law, Nigeria, Prof. Nwakwe Abugu, called on the relevant authorities to ensure that justice is done fully, transparently, and without delay.
