A commercial tricyclist, Lucky Okoro, recounts to BIODUN BUSARI how people insulted him for returning N4m to a Cameroonian woman who forgot it in his vehicle after a trip in Aba, Abia State
How long have you been working as a commercial tricyclist?
I’ve been working as a tricyclist since January 16, 2016. I’m based in Aba, Abia State. I’m from Abia State. I am also an indigene of Abia State from Obingwa Local Government Area.
How did you come about the Cameroonian woman who forgot her money in your tricycle?
Well, she boarded my tricycle as one of my passengers on Thursday, June 26. She boarded from the main park, going to the Ariaria International Market in Aba. According to her, it was her first day in Abia State. She had been to the Onitsha market in Anambra State before to buy clothes in large quantities, but she came to Abia State for the first time for business.
What kind of business did she come for?
She came to buy shoes. I think she deals in clothes as a trader.
Was she the only passenger you carried that time?
She was not the only passenger. There was another woman with a child at the back. The child sat in the middle of the back seat. The woman sat at one end of the back seat, while the Cameroonian sat on the other end. With that, there were three people.
Also, I carried another person in the front seat. The woman who came in with her child alighted along Okigwe Road before Ariaria. It was the Cameroonian woman who was left alone in the back. I picked up two more passengers at Seven Decks Ariaria, and we continued the journey.
How did she leave that amount of money in your vehicle?
When I picked her up, she told me that Ariaria was her destination. She told me that she was going to where she could buy Aba-made shoes. I described where she would get them and the fares. She asked me to take her to the place, and we embarked on the trip.
Unfortunately, she was carrying a lot of small bags. She dropped a particular one where the money was kept at the back of the seat. When she got to her destination, she forgot to take it. I even gave her the description of the place she was going when we got to the park, not knowing she had not carried the money she would use to purchase her goods.
She gave me N500, and I gave her N300 change. I even told her where to locate the vehicle that would take her back from the market because she asked me. She did not tell me that she was from Cameroon. She just asked questions.
How did you discover the money?
When she left, I went to the junction and called passengers to load, and as they were onboarding, I saw a ‘carpenter’ bag. And when I opened the bag, I saw the money there. I knew it was from her immediately based on the conversations we had and the kind of questions she asked me.
Then, I rushed back to the Ariaria market to go and look for her. I went to the place to look for her like four times, and I did not see her. I made five trips before I eventually saw her, where she was crying, surrounded by a crowd in the market. She boarded my vehicle around 8 am, and the time I saw her was around 10 am.
When I saw her crying, I already knew it was her money. So, I met people asking her a series of questions about where she kept the bag and if she knew the driver of the tricycle. Some people were blaming her for keeping that kind of money in the back seat of the keke. She even said that the money was a loan.
I was listening to her story among the crowd before I went straight to her. I had kept the money where I kept the spare tyre. I just called her, opened the place and gave her the bag. I asked her the amount of money in the back and she said it was N4m.
So, I asked her to confirm the amount after giving it to her. She confirmed that the money was complete. As I was talking, people started filming me and taking pictures.
How did you feel at that moment?
I felt happy that I helped someone. I was not a person who made another fellow suffer. I still feel fulfilled because it was the right thing to do. I know there are a few good people, and I counted it as joy that I did the right thing.
As people were talking, some said good things about me, and others called me names for doing the right thing. A lot of people in that market were calling me ‘mugu’ or a fool. Among the good people who were there, they told me that I should carry the woman out of that area so that she would not be attacked by hoodlums.
The whole thing happened at the Ariaria main junction. There were no security operatives at that place. There used to be some military personnel at the place, but because of road construction around the place, the military personnel were not staying in that area.
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