Fears grip ATM users at Gwarinpa

A trader, Mary Udoh, who was a victim said on Sunday at about 7p.m., she went to a bank not far from NNPC mega filling station in Gwarinpa, and that after collecting some money, a man on her right hand side put a gun behind her waist and asked her to bring out the money from her handbag or be shot.
The woman said two people she thought also came to collect money from the ATM, came with the man that pointed gun at her.
“One of them brought out a daggar and threatened to kill me if I shout or make noise, I obediently gave them the N20,000 I collected and I was forced to make another N20,000 withdrawal immediately. What saved me was that I didn’t have enough money in that account. I have vowed never to go to any ATM again in Gwarinpa,” she said.
She also claimed to have reported the matter to the Gwarinpa divisional  police station and that she was assured of getting her money back.
Another victim, a nurse in a private pharmacy at Efab Estate Life Camp said, she decided to go to an ATM that is located in a popular eatery at Gwarinpa estate.
According to her, as soon as she collected the money and put in her handbag, the next thing she saw was a man who jumped out from a Honda Civic car, grabbed her handbag and pushed her down.
She lamented that even the security men working in the eatery looked on as nobody tried to help, adding that the suspects jumped inside the vehicle and sped off.
“My two phones, the N60,000 I had before and the N10,000 I collected from the ATM which I was supposed to send to my sick dad on Monday morning was also in that handbag. It was a devastating experience,” she said.
When contacted, the Gwarinpa divisional police officer, Chief Superintendent Afolabi Wilfred, said no report of such was brought to their notice except the one that happened at a business outfit in the area.
He said he was a little bit surprised because nobody had come to lodge such complaint to them as they have surveillance policemen on plain clothes, who would have nabbed the criminals as they had done with the ones terrorising the users of that business out fit.
“The one I know is the one that people complained about the ATM at Drumstix eatery where they used to snatch people’s handbags. I sent my surveillance men there and as God would have it, they robbed a woman that day and were about jumping inside a vehicle before my men swooped on them and arrested one of them. As I’m talking to you, he is in our custody and would be charged to court,” he said.
The Gwarinpa police chief said that people should come forward and report any criminal act to the police because according to him, if they are not reported, police wouldn’t know.