Police Arrests Man Who Uses Monkeys And Snakes For Robbery In Lagos

27-year-old Mohammed Nafiu, who uses monkeys and snakes to rob people of their money and valuables has been arrested by the police in Lagos, alongside his monkey.

The Kano State-born Nafiu, while speaking with the police, said he initiated this method of robbery operation some years ago with his accomplice, Nura, who is still at large.

“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, married with three children, was a farmer and native drug vendor before coming to Lagos in 2005.

“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, Lagos state. The man was said to be holding a nylon bag containing money.

On sighting their next victim, they 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.”

Nafiu admitted that they had two snakes and two baboons, which they used to scare and harass their victims and have made a lot of money using this strategy . 

"One of the monkeys has been arrested and we are still trailing the other suspect and the other animals,” a police officer said.