A 26-year-old man, Mohammed Rafiu and his 10-year-old monkey
have been arrested for alleged robbery by police in Lagos. Rafiu is accused of
using monkeys and snakes to scare his victims who for fear of their lives will
drop their bags and run. Both the suspect and the monkey were arrested at Ogba,
Lagos, shortly after allegedly robbing one of their victims of N240,000.
Rafiu and others at large were alleged to have trailed their
latest victim who just emerged from a bank at Ogba, and unleashed the
aggressive monkey on him. Rafiu, along with one of his partners, Sani,
allegedly grabbed the victim’s bag and attempted to flee. He succeeded in
handing over the bag containing the money to Sani before he (Rafiu) was
arrested by the police at the scene.
At the police station, Rafiu confessed that he relocated to
Lagos when he learnt that his business would do better in the city.
His words: "I normally sell herbal mixtures in Kano and to
attract customers, I allow my monkey to dance to the amazement of passers-by.
This will attract their attention and give me the opportunity to sell my drugs.
In 2005, my brother returned from Lagos and told me that I am wasting my
talent in Kano.
"He advised me to travel down to Lagos with the monkey.
Since I knew that I was going for a better opportunity, I bought a new monkey
making it two. Just like he predicted, business was booming till 2010 when it
started dwindling. They were so many herbal doctors everywhere. We could hardly
make N2, 000 in a day. Life was becoming difficult that I could not send money
home.
"I was even contemplating to travel back to Kano when an
incident changed my decision. We were heading back after a stressful day, when
my monkey jumped on a woman and she left her bag and fled. I called her in an
attempt to give her the bag but she kept running. Since no one saw what
happened, I kept the bag and later discovered that there was N30,000 inside it.
I was very happy and shared the news with my colleague who was into the same
monkey business.
"We normally operate at night when no one will notice that
we are there. We made good money and gradually we introduced the use of snake.
No normal person will take a pin if he sees a snake is about to bite him. We
had to stop using the snake when we nearly lost control of it during an
operation. The snake did not stop when we ordered it, I had to kill the python
to save the man."
On the day of his arrest, he said that they came with their
car towards the bank. "We waited till we saw a man stepping out from the bank
with a bag. We followed him behind till he left the bank area. I then stepped
out with the two monkeys with us, while Sani, my partner moved closer to him. I
ordered the monkey to scare him and he threw away the money and ran for safety.
As fast as we could, I picked the money and threw it to Sani who rushed into
the car. Unfortunately passers-by saw what happened and started stoning me.
Sani ran away with one of the monkeys while I was mobbed by some angry people.
It was God that saved me when two policemen came and rescued me. I would have
died there. I thank Allah."
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