By Alpha Abu
People living in the extreme east end of the capital, Freetown are becoming increasingly alarmed at the spate of machete attacks on residents by robbers.
These attacks are concentrated in the highly populated Wellington community, with the police virtually incapable of stopping them.
Victims in most of the cases, described the robbers as young men wearing only boxers with no clothes, and apparently high on drugs. They carry out their attacks in a ruthless manner hardly imagined of any sane person.
They would strike at their victims repeatedly until they collapsed.
In some neighbourhoods, the chilling screams of victims would force the desperate residents out to confront the robbers who, sensing the danger, would flee while in some other not-so-brave neighbourhoods hardly anyone would venture out and not until the machete wielding robbers had executed their ghastly deeds and fled.
Abdul Bangura 36, a driver and a father of 2 at old City Road Wellington was awoken at around 4 a.m. by the screams of his grand-aunt, Mary, who apparently surprised a group of three machete- carrying thieves, as she went out to prepare breakfast for her family.
Mr. Bangura upon rushing out of his apartment got confronted by one of the men and a desperate fight ensued.
Another of the men, who had unsuccessfully tried to get hold of the woman, immediately joined in the fight as his partner in crime was being over-powered.
“This other guy was the one who raised and aimed his machete at my face and I believed the instinctive raising of my arms probably saved my life,” says Mr. Bangura.
His left arm took the blow from the machete.
As neighbours unlocked their doors and came out, the robbers were gone. Mr. Bangura was taken to hospital and had doctors treat his gash with twenty- two stitches.
For residents of a one-storey house at Mansaray Lane, Peacock Farm, in Wellington, it was one of a hellish nightmare when a large group of machete-wielding robbers also in just boxers scaled the fence and used heavy tools to force open all the main doors to the four apartments in the house.
As frightened men, women and children cowered in corners, the robbers ransacked all the rooms, taking money and cell phones.
The raid on the house which began at 2:00 a.m. took nearly forty-five minutes to complete.
A victim and welder who wished not be named and who is still so frightened that he refused to talk to Politico, was struck on the back repeatedly with machete.
He had to be rushed to the Rokupa hospital and later the Kingharman Road hospital for treatment.
He is discharged but still nursing his wounds.
Popular comedian in the east end of Freetown, Abibu Kargbo fondly known as Agnes Bockarie suffered machete wounds to the head when robbers stormed his Wellington residence.
A close friend of Abibu says he relapsed into coma on several occasions minutes after the attack. Blood could be seen on his room window.
A security guard at the Wellington health centre simply called Charles over the weekend had a scuffle with robbers who tried to break into the centre. His phone was snatched away but the thieves in their haste to run away from the scene, left behind not only one of their machetes but also a cell phone likely belonging to one of them – a vital lead which credible sources say is already assisting the police in making arrests, through numbers and pictures they’ve removed from the phone.
Most of those being questioned over this particular incident by police are said to be from Calaba Town.
Arrests have also been effected in the Wellington area in connection with other cases of armed robbery in that part of the city.
