Soldier: Why I exhumed my cultist gun buried 12 years ago

Taiwo Jimoh

Lance Corporal, Bright Okeke Daniel, attached to Transport and Supply Department, Bonny Camp, Lagos Island, has been accused of attempting to snatch a motorcycle from a cyclist at the Agboju area of the state.

Daniel, who said that he didn’t want to appear on television for the allegations raised against him, said that the issue would break his mother’s heart.

He said: “I have disappointed my mother with my bad behaviour. I don't know what pushed me to bring out a pistol had buried since 2006, when I was a cultist.”

The police explained that trouble for the suspect started when he was returning from Bonny Camp. He was said to have boarded a motorcycle going to Ojo Barracks, where he stays, but on the way, he was alleged to have brought out his pistol and tried to snatch the motorcycle from the owner. He was pounced upon by other cyclists.

Our correspondent gathered that Daniel was rescued by a Policeman who was passing by. The policeman took him to their station, but he was alleged to have thrown his pistol into a nearby bush when he was mobbed by the cyclists.

Daniel said that he was returning from Bonny Camp where he went to drop his boss when the whole trouble started.

He said: "After I had dropped my boss at Bonny Camp, I decided to take a motorcycle to avoid traffic along the Badagry Expressway. The cyclist charged me N300 from Mile 2 to Ojo Barracks. When we got to Agboju bus stop, he called for another passenger. I asked him why he wanted to pick another passenger. When I contracted him, he didn’t tell me he was going to take another person. He then told me that was how they usually picked two passengers. I told him that I couldn’t give him N150 out of the N300 I had because I didn’t have any other money. Before I knew what was happening, he parked his motorcycle and tried to fight me. While some of his colleagues who were riding pass, they also stopped and joined in beating me.”

Daniel explained that when they mobbed him, a policeman intervened and rescued him. The policeman took him to Agboju Police Station.

Daniel said: “I was in the barracks at Ojo Cantonment when policemen came to arrest me. They said that they found a pistol at the spot where I fought with the cyclist. The truth is that I was not supposed to have a pistol. However, I bought the gun in 2006 when I was a member of a cult group in school. That was at the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu State. When I joined army, I buried the pistol. I recently brought it out because I wanted to use it to defend myself. I was a corporal, but demoted to a private because I had accident with the car of the general I was attached to.”