A robbery suspect, 31-year-old Abdullahi Hassan, has admitted robbing his elder brother, Chitta Sarudou, a bureau de change operator based in Lagos. But he said the act does not qualify him to be called an armed robber because he used a machete in order not to attract sympathizers.
Hassan was said to have attacked his brother who was going for the jumat on Friday last week, thinking that he was with the money he had wanted to collect from him. He was said to have gone straight to the victim and inflicted several cuts on him but his screaming attracted the attention of passers-by.
Initially, the people thought they were merely fighting. But when they had disarmed Hassan and asked why he inflicted serious machete cuts on Chitta, they discovered that Hassan was actually trying to rob Chitta.
In anger, they descended on Hassan with whatever objet they could lay their hands on before the police came to his rescue. Chitta was then rushed to the hospital while Hassan was detained by the police pending when he would be charged to court.
Explaining why he operated with a machete, Hassan said: “I did not know that using a machete to rob is armed robbery. I wanted to use a weapon that would not sound like a gun to avoid attracting the attention of passersby who would like to help him to attack me. Again, a gun would not have been convenient as the environment was not the kind of place one would fire a gunshot and escape.”
Hassan, an indigene of Kebbi State, added: “I am a shoe shiner and repairer. Chitta is my brother. He has a lot of money but refused to help me.
“What are the police charging me for? Do they say I committed armed robbery? I only used a machete on him. I did not intend to kill him. I only wanted to demobilize him to enable me collect the money on him and disappear before he would regain consciousness. But he raised the alarm before he lost consciousness and the angry mob came and gave me the beating of my life.”
He admitted that it was the second time he would rob with a machete.
No comments:
Post a Comment