Scavenger stabs generator repairer to death over rabbits

A 19-year-old scrap metal scavenger, Mohammed Bello, is in custody of the Department of Criminal Investigation, Yaba, Lagos for allegedly stabbing a generator repairer, Taiwo Falola, to death during an argument over the sale of rabbits in Abbatoir area of Agege, Lagos.

The police said Falola, who reared the rabbits, got into an argument with Bello when he refused to sell his baby rabbits.

Bello allegedly inflicted a three-inch injury on Falola’s neck, causing the deceased to bleed and die before he could even get to the hospital where he was rushed to.


The deceased’s uncle, Mutiu Adebayo, told our correspondent that one of Falola’s friends rushed to their house that Saturday, on July 4, 2015, and told him Falola had got into an argument and had been stabbed.

“We went to the police division at Abattoir and we were told he had been taken to hospital. By the time we got there, he was already dead. He had even been taken to the mortuary,” Adebayo said.

Twenty-five-year-old Falola was said to have been rearing rabbits for some years and when one of his rabbits had new babies, he offered them for sale.

Saturday PUNCH learnt that the culprit saw the rabbits in the cage and asked if he wanted to sell them, but Falola said he did not want to sell to him. An argument ensued and Bello allegedly stabbed Falola to death.

Falola has been breeding rabbits for some years, and one of them just had babies, which he put in a cage to sell outside his house.

Saturday PUNCH learnt that Falola had initially had an altercation with another resident of the area over the baby rabbits and he became suspicious of Bello when he asked about his baby rabbits.

Residents claimed Bello was a violent young man who attacked residents at little provocation in the area.

The police said after the suspect stabbed Falola in the neck, he ran away from the scene but eyewitnesses gave him a chase and caught him.

Saturday PUNCH learnt that Bello was restrained with a rope after he had stabbed one of the men who caught him.

Bello, who said he was from Sokoto, however denied the crime blatantly.

He said, “My brother, Sanusi, is the one who stabbed him and told the people I did it. It was my brother that stabbed him. But they said I was the one who did it. I know nobody in Lagos that is why they implicated me. I did not do it. The knife belongs to Sanusi.

“I gather scrap metals for sale but I don’t have much money. Sanusi is richer than me and has decided to use that to deal with me.”