Vanguard’s Crime reporter, Albert Akpor, narrowly escaped death weekend , after he was shot by a two-man robbery gang on Airport road, Lagos, at 10pm.

Albert who is currently receiving treatment at a private hospital, also had his car’s windscreen shattered by the robbers’ bullets, even as he was dispossessed of an unspecified amount of money and other valuables.

He had a premonition of the danger ahead when he was reluctant to leave the office that fateful day. “My spirit was down and I did not want to go anywhere. I went to the Corporate Affairs Manager’s office where I slept until 9pm and called a friend to find out about the traffic situation in my area.

“I left because I needed to organize security in respect of the Guild of Editors’ conference and had to contact the Lagos State Police Command, which gladly released some of its men.

“I was on my way to meet our Editor-in-Chief, when after driving past Mobil filling station, I parked to ease myself. Then, I saw somebody walking towards me. He walked past me, came back again and said, ‘Oga when you finish hands up’.  I called his bluff because of his frail looks. But on a closer look, I realized he was holding a cut-to size locally made gun. It was at that point that I did as he ordered.”

Another member of the gang, he said , came out of the bush while he was searching his vehicle for his phone and money on the directive of the one with a gun.

“Immediately his gang member came, he shouted at me, ‘ you are wasting our time. And the next thing I heard was a gun shot that shattered my car windscreen.”

Unknown to him, the bullet brushed through his head. But in his confused state, he sped off until he got to Hajj camp before he discovered that his shirt was soaked with blood.

Feeling dizzy, he drove into the Hajj camp police station from where he was rushed to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, where doctors confirmed that the bullet did not pierce into his skull.

But he could not be admitted as there was  no bed space. “ It was even one of the doctors that went to bring his seat from where I was treated”, he stated. He remained on that spot until the next morning before he was taken to the company’s hospital

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr Marvel Akpoyibo upon receiving the information, personally visited Albert in the hospital same night, where he assured of a man hunt for the robbers.