Bandits Hack Off Corper’s Hand In Bayelsa…As Community Apprehends Attackers

Director-General, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS), Prof. Epiphany Azinge; Director-General, Nigerian Law School, Dr Taliu Mamman and Acting Chief Judge of Adamawa State, Justice Nathan Musa, at the NIALS 2013 state of the legal profession lecture in Abuja on Tuesday

The emergency security meeting held Tuesday by the Gbarain Central youth body in Yenagoa Local Government Area, Bayelsa State in response to the robbery incident on Monday night in which a female National Youth Service Corps member serving at the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital was attacked and her right hand savagely chopped off has paid off with the arrest of the two culprits.
The Corps member, Miss Folakemi Akinbode was returning to the lodge on the fateful day when, at about 8.30pm, the hoodlums attacked her with knife and inflicted first degree injury on her left hand.
“She lost so much blood as the hand was almost severed that she was unconscious for many hours, but revived in the nearby NDUTH”, a colleague of the injured lady said.
Following the incident, the traditional ruler of the community, His Royal Highness, Godgives Apoh, the Ibolou of Obunagha, was said to have given the youths of area ultimatum to hunt for the hoodlums, an order that paid off with the arrest of the two suspects at Koroama village within the same Yenagoa Local Government Area.
The suspects were later handed over to police where they admitted being responsible for the crime.
According to them, the corps member was attacked because she refused to hand over to them a hand bag containing her handset, and unspecified amount of money.
Police source said the suspects who had confessed to the crime, claimed that, the 26-year old Ondo State indigene, a Batch A Corps member and graduate of Nursing from the Madonna University, Elele Campus in Rivers State, struggled with them while they were attempting to snatch her bag.
Folakemi was reported to have been in charge of huge amount of money used by the hospital to pay blood donors at the Blood Bank section, and earlier in the day, paid one of the suspects for donating his blood to the hospital.
The suspects had decided to ambush the corps member, having discovered that she still had some money left with her before the close of work on the fateful day.
According to Police, “they claimed that all they wanted from her was the remaining money she kept in her bag after the payments in the afternoon. But that when she struggled and identified one of them, she was attacked with machete”
Speaking to journalists, Chief Godgives Apoh, said the quick arrest of the suspected attackers was made possible by the emergency youth meeting of Youth Vigilante Association set up to investigate and apprehend those involved in the attack.
However, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Alex Akhigbe, who confirmed the arrest, said more investigations are going on to determine the real motive behind the crime.
Meanwhile, an Italian firm working in the state is planning to send the victim abroad for further treatment, just as an Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) presidential candidate, Comrade Udens Eradiri has promised to pay for the visa.
Comrade Eradiri, who visited the victim in her hospital bed, expressed shock at the degree of the injury, and called on the law enforcement agents to bring the culprits to justice.
The Tide gathered that the attack is the latest in a string of incidents involving suspected cult members despite the recent amnesty granted to some 10,000 cultists by the state Governor, Hon Seriake Dickson.
However, The Tide investigations revealed that the dastardly act has thrown other corps members in the area into panic and anxiety.
But Akhigbe, however, advised other corps members in the area, and indeed, the entire state, not to panic, as the police will do everything possible to bring the attackers to justice, and urged them to go about their normal activities without any fear of harassment or intimidation.