While their victims, who are innocent and hard-working residents of Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State, are crying and gnashing their teeth, criminals and swindlers are smiling with their new strategy yet to be properly understood by the majority of the residents.
For some months now, DrumAfricanews has been following cases of phone theft and untraceable money withdrawals ongoing in Aba and has discovered that there is a particular syndicate running unperturbed in the city using tricycles as a channel of operation.
Their recent victim, Mr Chuukwuemeka Eletue, a young family businessman who deals in electrical parts, had his account cleaned up and left red by these merciless criminals whom he unsuspetedly boarded their tricycle at their most notorious spot, No. 1 junction.
Almost all the cases recorded about these criminals have links to No. 1 junction, and should already enough for the Abia State Tricycle Operators Union (ASTOPU), Aba Zone, and the police to use it as a lead to go for these heartless criminals.
All three victims recorded of recent, had similar stories. Mr Ekene Udeh, Mr Nnamdi Anya and Mr Chuukwuemeka Eletue all confirmed that they boarded the tricycles from the popular no. 1 junction and had their phones stolen, before their accounts were emptied.
While Udeh and Anya lost over three million naira each to the criminals, Eletue, a young businessman, lost two million just on Monday, 5th of October 2026, to the criminals after they used their latest format to steal his phone and make away with his money.
Eletue, while narrating his ordeal, which was equally corroborated by Udeh and Anya, said that the new criminal format actually has three criminals involved, and they only needed one innocent passenger to complete the tricycle four before they would strike.
According to him, the rider who will be busy at a particular spot will be heard aloud shouting the name of whatever location the unsuspecting passengers may want to go to.
Immediately the innocent passengers enters, within a twinkle of an eye, two young men will appear pretending to be heading to the same destination.
Eletue said that the criminals are so tactical that they already know the spot one would alight from the tricycle based on what you told their rider partner.
“Therefore, if the Keke is heading to Abayi, for instance, you, their victim had already told them that you will be stopping at Bata, Brass or Aba Town Hall while they will move on.
“So, immediately you get to your destination and gets down; whether you paid them or not, they will zoom off before you can even shout or have the time to alert people.”
According to Eletue, as corroborated by Udeh and Anya, while at the entrance of the tricycle, the two members of the syndicate will observe the pockets of the victim to know where he kept his phone.
If he splits them into two pockets, which means he has two phones, both criminals will flank the victim, who will now be in the middle.
However, if the victim had the phone on the side of his pocket, both of them would move to that particular area, asking the victim to adjust to the extreme at the other end while they perfect their strategy.
According to Eletue, “Within a minute of driving out of the boarding spot, one closer to you will cough, and the next thing you’ll hear is ‘Oga, please shift; let me spit out mucus.'” Being a human being, immediately you hear mucus, you’ll relax deeper for him to do his thing while his body presses on yours; his partner will immediately move out your phone from your pocket.
“That was how they got me. Immediately after we left, no. 1 was getting close to CKC because they already knew I’d stop at St Michaels. The one sitting closer to me began to misbehave, like some that catarrh was blocking his throat with thick buildup and needed help to open up breathing passages.
“Since spitting out mucus is a natural way to clear thick secretions, irritants, and germs from your airways, I gave him space and also protected my face, but unknown to me, I sold out myself to them to steal my phone.
“Immediately, I stopped at St Michaels Road by Asa Road. I gave them 500 naira, and they zoomed off without giving me my change while I was battling to understand why they did that. My mind suddenly went to my pocket, but it was too late as my phone was gone.
“When I later checked my account on Tuesday morning because the incident happened on Monday evening, I discovered that it didn’t take up to 20 minutes while I was rushing seeking help on how to safeguard my account; they began withdrawing and emptying my account to even the last one thousand.
“As I speak to you now, everything I have laboured for as a man has been stolen from me. I’m actually beginning life now as a boy that came to Aba without anything. All my savings are gone.”
Eletue is not alone in his ordeal, but his case is still fresh and arguably the newest victim of the Yahoo Boys disguising as Keke Riders in Aba, especially from the popular no. 1 junction.
