The suspect, Cephas Abbas

Jethro Ibileke/Benin
A 20-year-old man, Cephas Abbas, is currently being detained at the Edo State Police Command headquarters for allegedly hacking a motorcyclist to death in Ovia South-West Local Government of Edo State.

‎The suspect, a rubber tapper who apparently wanted to reap where he did not sow, had reportely asked the victim, identified as Aniete Okon, to give him a ride from Okomu to Benin, the state capital on November 3.

It was further alleged that the suspect who hails from Benue State, was alleged to have earlier planned to dispossess Okon of the motorcycle.

As part of his grand plan, he was said to have told his unsuspecting victim to make a stopover on the way, where he picked up a cutlass and inflicted severe cuts on him at his neck, before fleeing with the motorcycle with the intent to sell it.

The long arm of the law however caught up with him when his potential buyers suspected his claim of ownership of the motorcycle and handed him to some security operatives attached to agro-allied firm who in turn handed him over to the police in the area.

Abbas in his confessional statement to journalists in Benin, who said he had no intention to kill the man, blamed his action on poverty.

“He [the victim] carried me on his motorcycle and on our way to Benin, I saw a cutlass at a rubber plantation. Then I told him to stop. Then, I took the cutlass and cut him in the neck.

“I did not plan to kill him; it was because of poverty. I took the motorcycle to another community to sell. But I could not sell it; it was identified as a stolen motorcycle.

“‎They [community residents] said that it was stolen and that they would follow me to where I reside to verify the ownership of the motorcycle.

“When we were going, some security men stopped us and they explained to the security men that they suspected the motorcycle I was carrying. So, I was taken to a police station. I regret what I have done,” he narrated.

‎The State Police Commissioner, Mr. Haliru Gwandu, who paraded the Abbas with other suspects in Benin on Tuesday, said that the case was still under investigation and that he would be charged to court at the end of the investigation.

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.