MCL worker shot, robbed

Mwananchi Communications Ltd (MCL) assistant web editor Patrick Pella shows his hand injury at Amana Hospital in Dar es Salaam yesterday. PHOTO|ANTHONY SIAME      

By Songa wa Songa, The Citizen Reporter

Posted  Friday, February 20  2015 at  08:48

In Summary

Mr Patrick Pella had just withdrawn the money around 3pm from NMB Bank Mandela branch, about 500 metres from MCL, when two men on a motorbike forced him to hand them the money at gun point.

Dar es Salaam. Armed thugs yesterday shot and robbed a Mwananchi Communications Limited (MCL) employee of Sh2 million along Mandela Road in the city.

Mr Patrick Pella had just withdrawn the money around 3pm from NMB Bank Mandela branch, about 500 metres from MCL, when two men on a motorbike forced him to hand them the money at gun point.

They shot his left arm immediately after he gave them the bag with the money.

Speaking to The Citizen at Amana Hospital where he was being treated for the gun wound, Mr Pella said before entering the bank, he bought some oranges in the vicinity and used the same black plastic bag popularly known as rambo with fruits to carry the money.

“Before I made the withdrawal, I inquired if the cheque I had deposited days before had matured and I was told it had, then I withdrew Sh2 million,” he recounted.

He said after walking out of the bank, bodaboda riders who park near the bank, at Tiot bus stand were not willing to serve him, to his astonishment.

“I approached the first one but he declined; the second, the third and the fourth also refused, which was so strange to me because the same riders normally fight for passengers,” he said.

Mr Pella narrated that it is the fifth rider who reluctantly agreed to carry him as he wanted to take the money to someone at Ubungo. But they rode for about 200 metres on service road and when they stopped to find their way into the main road it is when another motorcycle stopped behind them. One thug alighted from the cycle and ordered him to hand him the bag. “He said ‘give me the money’.

Before I said a word he pulled out a pistol, pointed it at me and said ‘give me the damn money’, so I gave him the bag while still on the bike but as soon as he grabbed it he aimed at my stomach but I leaned back quickly and the bullet caught my left arm,” he narrated.

Inspector Willy Sangali from Magomeni police station who is investigating the case said police are holding one bodaboda rider and promised a thorough investigation and legal action against the culprits.