Hoodlums’ new antics expose

There is a new wave of crime in the country.  It is about the so-called roadside mechanics who draw motorists’ attention to a supposed problem on your vehicle.

These roadside mechanics position themselves at intervals shouting and pointing their fingers at your vehicle over a non-existent problem. While in motion.  Unless you are watchful, if you stop, chances are, you will become a victim of robbery attack.

As you alight from the vehicle to check why you were being given signs to stop, the hoodlums would swiftly pour black oil on your tyre. They would now tell you that they are mechanics, but that God saved you that you stopped, otherwise, the tyre would have pulled off.

Investigations confirmed the development.  On Ibadan/Ife road in Osun State, for instance, the evil boys would draw attention, shouting, “fire, fire.” When you stop, that is the beginning of your problem.

A victim, John Kelekumor, who plies the road weekly from Lagos, said:  “I used to pity victims whose vehicles develop fault in Osun State.   Recently at Ife junction, I saw about 10 hoodlums giving out signs to motorists that their vehicles were faulty. So, I later turned back and I saw them dealing with their victims who fell prey.

“The man who was driving a Toyota Highlander Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) and felt his vehicle was faulty came down to check what was wrong.  At that instance, I saw one of the mechanics pulling something from under the vehicle.  The mechanics were telling the victim that he should give glory to God as the vehicle would have caught fire if not for their intervention.

“The hoodlums demanded for some money before they would repair the vehicle.  I now pretended as if I knew the victim, I now whispered to him to enter his vehicle and move.  The man was very wise, as he drove off. A few kilometers, I told him that he was being fooled by the hoodlums so as to extort money from him,” he said.

If the man was lucky, Juliana Nwokidike, was not.

Hear her:  “It was on my way to Osun, just before Gbongan junction. I started seeing people by the roadside pointing at my vehicle, alerting me that something was wrong.  When I stopped, I saw black oil on my back tyre.  Three men surrounded me.  They told me that it was God that saved me, as my tyre would have pulled off if not for their intervention.  I was grateful to them.

“They loosened the tyre and removed something they claimed was a boris (spare part).  They said it costs N5,000 and that I would pay them N4,000 for their labour.  After much argument, they agreed to collect N2,000 for labour.  Well, it was when they came back and had finished fixing the boris and I paid them N6,000 that one of them shouted that the front tyre was also affected.  When I looked at the tyre, I saw black oil on the passenger side.  I now suspected foul-play, as there was no oil on it before they started fixing the tyre.

“This time, I now played a fast one on them, I behaved as if I wanted to bring more money.  As I was asking them whether it was the same price as the back boris, I zoomed off with my car.  It was when I got to Ife, and I took my vehicle to a car wash that I discovered that it was ordinary condemned oil that they sprinkled on the tyre.  Nothing was wrong with my boris,” she said.

The atrocity is more rampant in Ondo and Edo states.

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