Nigerian Businessman Attacked In South Africa Offers Reward For Capture Of Assailants

A Nigerian businessman in South Africa, Mr Tonye Irims, has offered a reward of 10,000 rands (N250,000) for information leading to the capture of criminals that perpetrated a near-fatal attack on him at his farm in South Africa.

According to TheNewsMatric, the incident occurred somewhere between 23:30hrs and 00:00hrs midnight on January 6, 2021, at his farm in Bronkhorstspruit, Gauteng province, South Africa.

He said the three attackers, one of them carrying a loaded firearm and wearing ski masks, slipped unnoticed into the farm after breaking the security gate and entered the premises to find him and his staff awake.

He said the criminals fired several shots through the kitchen door, one of which tore through his left leg and left him bleeding.

On gaining entry, one of the attackers smashed a vase on his head and ordered him to lie down but he refused to comply.

“Unfortunately for them, they did not get the chance to carry out their devious plan as I refused to comply with their instructions to lie on the floor, which they yelled out to us in the local language. Fortunately, I didn’t understand the command of “la-la” which I understood after the incident to mean lie down,” he said.

Giving further details, he said, “Because I could not understand what they were saying and proceeded to advance towards them, they slammed a flower vase on my head and moments after, they proceeded out of the kitchen into the yard to what I assume to decide to shoot so they can get valuables from the house.

“Once they stepped out the house to restrategise, I quickly hauled my fridge behind the broken kitchen door to keep them out and slid the dining table to add leverage to the refrigerator against the broken door while yelling for help. They started firing rounds and breaking the kitchen windows in frustration. One of the bullets tore my left foot. The yelling and gunshots got our security guard’s attention on the other end of the farm; he hurriedly came to the scene, which caused the gunmen to flee.

“Neighboring farmers were first on the scene. The police and detectives arrived on the scene like an hour after.”

Irims, the CEO of WiSolar, an energy solutions company, said he had offered R10,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest of the men. Such information can be shared with Detective Gama at the Bronkhorstspruit detective unit.

He said he was still recovering from his wounds.