I am not a threat

By Patience Ogbo



A 20 year-old man, Promise Bassey, is in police custody for  alleged  assassination threat on the life of  a middle aged man.

Mr. Bassey, from Calabar, Cross River State, said he masterminded the crime, with one Godstime, who is at large.

A written note to their victim, one Mr. Stanley, who resides in Festac Town, stated that they are “professional hired killers, men in red suit from Abuja.” In their letter, which has no date or address, they claimed they have been paid N3.5million to eliminate the victim, but stated that if the victim can pay them N2million, he will be spared.

A traumatised Mr. Stanley negotiated with the suspected assassins, for close to one month and they stepped down on their demand later, agreeing to collect N200,000.

Mr. Stanley however, went to the Festac Police Station and reported the incident. The police provided him with the marked notes which he was to pay to the suspects.

However, when Mr. Bassey went to pick up the money from the Festac First Gate junction, the police who had already placed men in strategic positions swooped on him.

Mr. Bassey said his desperation to get money for his late mother’s burial, made him to commit the crime.

“I work at Chisco Motors Ltd., at Maza Maza, as a loader. Since I came to Lagos in 2008, I have not made enough money for me to start life on my own. Where I am staying at Maza Maza, belongs to one of my friends. You see, the money I make from my job is just N500 per day, so it is not enough. Last month, I got a message from home that my mother died. I did not know what to do, because I do not have enough money and my sisters said I must bring money for the burial.

“One day, I was discussing my money problem with Mr. Godstime, one of my friends, and he was the one who came up with the idea, that we should write the letter that we are hired killers. Our aim is to just get money, not that we want to kill anybody. It is not as if we knew Mr. Stanley before.

“Mr. Godstime said a lot of rich people live in Festac, and that was how we just went to one of the houses on 6th Avenue. We picked one of the houses and Mr. Godstime was the one who wrote the letter which we dropped with the gate man of the house we chose. I was surprised the next day that Mr. Stanley called and said we should negotiate and that was how we agreed that he should drop N200,000 at Festac First Gate.”

The police also paraded one Mr. Uzochukwu as an accomplice in the crime. He however, denied the allegation.

“I do not know anything about this crime. I was just passing by, when I saw Promise picking up an envelope. Since he is my colleague at Chisco, I told asked him what he was doing. As we were talking, the police just jumped on us and arrested us. It was when we went to the station that I knew what was going on. God will vindicate me.”

The spokesperson of the Lagos State Police Command, Frank Mba, who paraded the suspects at the Oduduwa Police Station, advised Lagosians to always report any threat to their lives to the police.

“These men were arrested on March 26th. We advise Lagosians to always report cases of threat to life to the police. One of the suspects is still at large but we are on his trail. The case will be transfered to court as soon as we are through with the investigation.”