You could be going to work or standing by the road anywhere in Lagos and area boys or miscreants would suddenly ask you to apologise to a ‘chairman’ because you are wearing a particular colour of shirt or dress. You could lose your phone to them in a matter of minutes.
@TheNanaAishat, a Lagos-based chemist, was passing through the Iyana Iba area on Tuesday when a man stopped her and asked: “Why will you be wearing the colour (of clothes) you are wearing?”
While sharing details of the incident on X that same day, Aishat revealed that she wore a brown-coloured attire.
“I say make he no [vex]. Another one came from the opposite direction and said the same thing. [He] said I should follow him and beg one chairman; I just walked out on him,” she wrote.
According to Aishat, a man who witnessed what happened told her to be thankful as those men would have taken her phone.
The comments section showed that the incident was neither peculiar to Aishat nor Lagos. Other social media users living in other states said they have had similar experiences.
Although some were fortunate enough to escape with their belongings intact, others were not as lucky. Some victims lost phones, some lost money and others lost both.
FIJ observed some similarities across these shared experiences: someone would question the target for putting on a particular colour of clothes (it could be brown, black, white, yellow, and so on) or they accuse the target of being a cultist for wearing that colour of shirt. Then they will ask the target to come along to beg someone else.
The target’s chance of getting robbed is high if the target follows the strangers’ instructions. They could easily steal a phone during the interrogation even if the target doesn’t go with them. The target only needs to entertain these criminals long enough.
Abel Okon, an Akwa Ibom resident, told FIJ that he encountered these miscreants earlier in September at Itam Market beside the flyover.
They labelled him a cultist and accused him of ‘killing’ one of their brothers, but he managed to escape.
This was how Okon recalled the incident: “It was around 9 am. I was waiting for keke (tricycle) when Boy A walked up to me and said I was a cultist. I just laughed and was about to leave there when Boy B blocked me and said I killed his brother the previous night.
“I tried getting people’s attention. I kept saying, ‘Make una come see o, I no sabi these boys’. Right then, the first boy pulled something on my waist. I looked around and saw nobody was even stopping, though three guys just stood there either holding their lips or kicking stones while looking at what was happening to me. I didn’t see them when everything ended.
“So when I knew nobody cared about what was happening and running away was a bad idea just as trying to start a fight was a terrible idea too, I kept telling them I knew nothing about yesterday night. The second boy looked over me as if he was talking to someone far away and said, ‘Na one of them be this’.
“Still with his hands on my waist, the first boy asked me, ‘So una kill my friend brother; una even record am for phone dey share abi.’ I quickly brought out my phone, unlocked it and showed him my gallery. He looked through and saw nothing.
“Then the second boy said we must go to the station. Immediately I heard ‘police station’, I was a little relieved. Then he told the keke driver where he was going to, which I knew there was no police station there for sure. Immediately the first boy left my back to enter the keke, I saw an opportunity and ran away.”
Okon used to do his morning exercise from his house down to Itam Market before that fateful day. But that incident has made him stop.
Also, the fact that people did not show any concern while it was happening not until it was finally over got him worried about his safety.
“They all come over acting all worried (afterwards),” Okon said.
Jade (not real name) also told FIJ that a boy who looked like a 19-year-old or 20-year-old questioned her for wearing a black T-shirt in September. This was along Wetheral Road in Owerri, Imo State.
She said she wore a black T-shirt and blue jeans on that day as she waited for her Bolt ride when the boy approached her.
“In his exact words, ‘You dey wear black? Why you dey wear black? You no suppose wear black. Go tell that man wey dey there sorry make them pity you.’” she narrated.
“He pointed at a guy in front for me to go and apologise to for wearing a black T-shirt. I looked at him and told him to get out of my sight. Then I went close to a place where a lot of people were.
“The young boy followed me while I was moving away from him. He was saying in low tones: ‘I dey try help you; you dey do like this. They just kill somebody wey wear black for front now.’
“To start with, that road was not a lonely one and nobody was killed because my ride passed that same route. Everywhere looked normal. As I moved closer to the crowd, I couldn’t find him again.”
Also sharing his experience, @Oppenheimer2024, an X user, noted that the same tactic was used to steal his phone in Ilorin, Kwara State, when he was a serving corps member.
@lenis2 also wrote, “That’s how one guy threatened me with [a] knife and collected my phone. That why am I wearing his colour? I was begging for 45 minutes straight before he agreed to let me transfer (some money) to him. Only for the knife to be a lighter.”
“This scope worked on me in 100 level; they collected my phone, ATM card and pin, wallet and even my wristwatch. Though when I went to the chairman, it was at gunpoint they did all these,” wrote @ProsperAdewale.
Another X user @Official_Temii had a similar experience in the Yaba area of Lagos.
“Before asking me to meet their chairman, bro asked where I belong, saying I was flying their colour. I was confused because when did white and black turn colour for one group?” Temi said.
More petty thieves have adopted this modus operandi across Nigerian cities. The perpetrators often target and isolate their victims from the public.
Survivors also suggest that bystanders could do more to help targets whenever the criminals harass them in public. Those who spoke to FIJ noted their dismay when no one came after they called for help.
Abimbola Abatta is a reporter with FIJ, writing reports in partnership with Report for the World which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.
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