Robbery at Umuaka Unity Motor Park. Why they struck.
2 min read
Tuesday March 23 was a real bad day for Mr Iwunze (not real name) who runs an electronic money transfer business otherwise known as Point of Sale POS, inside the Unity Park in Afor Umuaka Market. On the fateful day, an unknown man violently accosted him and dispossessed him of a large amount of money at gun point in a broad day light robbery attack. According to an eye witness account, Umuaka Times gathered that Mr Iwunze went to a commercial bank within the locality and withdrew a large sum of money for his business for the day. The moment he withdrew the cash, he was said to have driven back from the bank to the Unity Park in order to run his POS business of the day. Unknown to him, two guys on a motorcycle were trailing him right from the premises of the commercial bank the moment he left.
On getting to the entrance of the Unity Park, the motorcycle rider sat on the bike while his colleague went to carry out the robbery inside the park. The moment Mr Iwunze alighted from his car, the robber approached him. Iwunze who was said to be in his 60s was ordered to drop the bag containing the money on the ground. He felt this to be a nightmare of which he would wake from. He refused to obey the order as he helplessly stood there looking at the robber. In order to strike fear into him, the robber fired a bullet from his Awka made pistol. This sent fears into the man as he dropped the bag containing the money on the ground. The armed robber rushed and picked up the bag of money, ran towards the entrance of the gate where his colleague was on a motorcycle waiting for him to finish the game. Instantly he jumped into the bike and the rider zoomed off. Mission accomplished.
Immediately this robbery took place and within a couple of 1 minute, Mr Iwunze started to shout and people gathered to ask what happened. By the time the people gathered, it had already been late as the robbers had already sped far away from the crime scene.
According to what Umuaka Times gathered, this particular robbery incident was not the first time POS business owners in the community were losing their money to armed robbers. Umuaka Times gathered that each time such robbery occurred in the past, the amount stolen was always big. Because of the robbery incident of last week, fear has gripped both the owners of POS businesses in the community and their patrons. In fact, the following day after the incident, some POS agents refused to open for business due to fear of another robbery. These robberies keep occurring because nobody had ever given the robbers a chase of their life.
Efforts by Umuaka Times to speak with the victim of the robbery incident proved abortive.
