na wa o monkey theft

The suspect
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.