The police in Lagos State have arrested a 27-year-old robbery suspect,
Mohammed Nafiu, who specialised in using monkeys and snakes to
dispossess people of their money and valuables.
One of the monkeys was also arrested and is presently in police custody.
Nafiu
told the police that apart from the conventional tool (gun) used by
most robbers, the sight of a snake or monkey unsettles and scares
people. He said he was able to dispossess his victims of their valuables
when confronted with these animals, especially fully grown ones.
The
Kano State-born Nafiu, and his accomplice, Nura, who is still at large,
said they initiated this method of robbery operation some years ago.
“We
trained the animals to obey our instructions. On a single command, the
animals attack whoever we want to rob and we are able to take whatever
valuable they have on them, especially money,” Nafiu said.
Nafiu, who is married with three children, was a farmer and native drug vendor until he came to Lagos about 10 years ago.
“I
learnt there were many Hausa people in Lagos, so I decided to come with
my monkey which I had been using for monkey shows in Kano,” he said.
A
police source said on the day Nafiu was arrested, he and his accomplice
had two monkeys in their Nissan Primera and were trailing a man who had
just come out of a popular bank in Ogba area of the state. The man was
said to be holding a nylon bag containing money.
On sighting
their next victim, they quickly went after him, unleashed their two
monkeys on him and dispossessed him of N230,000 cash.
Nafiu said,
“When we attacked the man, he was overcome with fear, so we collected
the money from him. As we were about leaving, having realised what was
happening, people started throwing stones and several objects at us.
Nobody could move near because they were also afraid of the monkey. Only
Nura could escape. When the stoning became too severe, I could not
escape and eventually, police came and arrested me and my monkey.”
He
said he could have released the monkey to protect himself, but he was
afraid that the monkey would injure a lot of people. “I had to endure
the attack because of this. I felt safer in the hands of the police than
being stoned to death right there,” he added.
He explained that
while Nura was escaping with the money, the victim was chasing him, but
that in order to stop the man, he took part of the money and threw back
the remaining at him so he could get busy picking the few naira notes
while he escaped.
Nafiu admitted that he had been using the
monkey to rob for some years and that it had injured a lot of people
including himself. He showed scratches on his hands which he said were
from the animal’s teeth and nails.
“I have made a lot of money
using this strategy but this N230,000 was the highest amount I ever got
from a single operation. And now I regret what I have done. If I can be
set free, I won’t do such again,” the suspect said.
But a police
source pointed out that another person had reported to the police that
the same gang (Nafiu and Nura) once attacked him with a “big” snake and
dispossessed him of some money.
“Nafiu admitted that they had two
snakes and two baboons, which they used to scare and harass their
victims. One of the monkeys has been arrested and we are still trailing
the other suspect and the other animals,” the source said.
As of
the time of filing this report, Police Public Relations Officer, Lagos
State Command, Mr. Kenneth Nwosu, had yet to reply the message our
correspondent sent to him.
culled from Punch