A Nigerian man based in Canada, Tomi Waziri, has revealed how he became blind after being shot by armed robbers.

Narrating his ordeal on his official X account, Waziri said he was robbed in Lagos, shot in the face and became blind at the age of 27 but overcame depression and suicidal thoughts.

He explained that the story contains dramatic experiences that happened to him in a chapter in his life, warning that it might give readers chills down their spine or even make people cry, but at the end of the day, he is sharing this to inspire someone out there.

Telling his story, he said: “One fateful day, September 12, 2019, I picked up my keys as an Uber driver that morning to go hustle, but unknown to me that I was going to experience a tragic event that will shake the foundation of my life.

“That evening I got a request when I was parked at 1004 Estate, Victoria Island, Lagos. I picked up a female rider and we started the journey. I asked if I should use the Google Maps and she said yes, so we headed towards Eko Bridge because she was heading towards the mainland in Lagos.

“On the bridge while in a slow moving traffic, we noticed too young men in their late teens, they were walking down the bridge and suspiciously staring into my vehicle.

“Before we knew it when they passed our vehicle, they came back and one of them had a gun, immediately my heart sunk. The one that had a gun came to the side of my door, aimed the gun at my face and told me to give him my phone.

“My rider was panicking, so I told her to stay low. Everything happened so fast. Within a minute. I reached out to my phone, which I placed in between the driver and the passenger seat.

“Then, I looked towards the button to wind down my window, I looked up towards the young man, and I heard a gunshot, it sounded so loud. Bang.!!!. I passed out immediately.”

Waziri said the next thing he remembered was that he regained consciousness, but everywhere was totally dark.

He said he heard the rider screaming, while the young man who shot him already reached out into his vehicle and was searching for his phone, which had fallen from his hand under the seat when he lost consciousness while he attempted to give him the phone.

According to him, the rider was screaming so loud so the armed robber took off, joined his colleague on a motor bike parked at the other side of the road, and they took off.

Waziri said right there, he was bleeding from his eyes, nose and mouth, with everywhere totally dark.

“I was just shot with a local gun through the glass of my window, I was hit with multiple pallets. The size of the battery of a wrist watch, with multiple hitting me everywhere on my face. Even my two front teeth were broken,” he explained.

“It turned out that the little bullet damaged both my eyes, so I became blind immediately. But in all of this, the next thing I did was ask my rider if she was okay and while panicking, she replied: “Oh! My God, they just shot you and you are asking me if I am fine”.

“Then, that was when it really sunk in, the reality of the possibility of not being able to see again, then the physical pain started. The pain started growing and growing, and my face kept on swelling. I told her with a faint voice, to go get help.

“All this while, she was screaming that they just shot my driver. Please help us, but nobody stopped. She eventually came down from the car and was trying to get the attention of other vehicles. This was about 9pm. There, I was all by myself in my pain, chaos, and misery thinking of the next thing to do.” (The Guardian, excluding headline)

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