Miserly bizman robbed, suffers in silence

 Miserly bizman robbed, suffers in silence

An Abuja-based businessman recently had the misfortune of being robbed of N500, 000. He had gone to cash the money from one of the new generation banks in the city centre. After taking possession of his cash, parceled in the highest denomination, he made for his car. But no sooner had he switched on the car engine than a young man emerged from nowhere, accosted him and drew his attention to his front tyre which had gone flat. He offered to help him fix it.

The bizman opened his booth, brought out the spare tyre, the jack and the wheel spanner. The Good Samaritan went to work and methodically removed the flat tyre and fixed the spare one. The unsuspecting bizman was appreciative and offered the guy some tip which he promptly turned down. Instead, he requested to be given a ride to the nearest point where he could catch a bus to Lugbe, a suburb in the Federal Capital Territory. The bizman obliged him.

They took off and a few metres away from the bank, a pretty-looking lady yelled: “Brother Tim!”

The Good Samaritan yelled back: “My sister, where are you headed?”

“Lugbe!” she roared back.

Without any prompting, the bizman hit the brake pedal, saying, “What a delectable sister you have”. The car’s rear door was flung open and the sister hopped in. On approaching a less busy spot around Area 3, the bizman felt the warm muzzle of a pistol kissing the scruff of his neck, followed by an order: “Stop and park the car!” 

The order came from the back seat. The bizman suddenly realized that he had fallen into the hands of criminals. He looked at the Good Samaritan seated with him in the front seat and was shocked at the sudden transformation of his pleasant mien. His reaction was even more shocking: “My sister is a descendant of Ayesha, the “She” Who Must Be Obeyed”. So, it is in your best interest to do as she ordered and be wise enough not to raise any alarm or kill off the engine.” He obeyed.

After ordering him to the back seat where the girl pressed the gun to his midsection, the Good Samaritan eased himself to the driver’s seat and zoomed off. For fear of running into one of the numerous checkpoints around the city, the Good Samaritan chose some isolated routes and ended up in a quiet location. They frisked him to the bones and collected the cash he withdrew, his wrist watch, laptops, cell phones, ATM cards, cheque books and other valuables. 

Next, the Good Samaritan opened the bonnet of the car to suggest that the car had a fault so that the long parking would not attract any suspicion. The girl later left the bizman and the Good Samaritan only to reemerge about an hour later in another vehicle. Then, they deflated the four tyres of the bizman’s car and fled. After the criminals had bolted, he found his way to the main road to seek for help. A tricycle operator rode by. He flagged him down and narrated his ordeal to him. The operator became the Good Samaritan II. He ferried him to a friend’s office and the operator was kind enough not to collect a dime from him. The friend then drove him to fetch a vulcanizer and his pumping machine. They drove to the site and the four tyres were re-inflated. On examining the tyre which went flat at the vicinity of the bank where he parked the car, the vulcanizer declared that there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. It was at that point that the bizman realized that the flatness of the tyre was the handiwork of the Good Samaritan. The act was intended to warm his way into his heart. 

The bizman’s harrowing experience drew sympathy from his friends. However, he could not admit to them that he was robbed of N500, 000. Neither could he tell them that he picked up the so-called Good Samaritan from the bank premises. This was because the very friend who drove him to the vulcaniser after the robbery had asked him for some financial assistance a few hours before his encounter with the robbers to enable him take care of some very urgent personal problems. But the bizman had insisted that he, too, was damn broke. How then would he explain his presence in the bank and the cash he lost to the criminals? He only told his sympathizers that he lost everything but money to the felons. So, he had to bear the cash loss in silence.