Nigerian Man loses eye while fighting armed robbers, says he doesn’t regret defending his family

A Nigerian man, Idris Abdulrazak Badamasi, has recounted how he lost one of his eyes while fighting off armed robbers that invaded his family home.

The graduate of Pure and Applied Chemistry from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, said the intruders attacked their house in Dawaki, Abuja on March 3, 2022.

Idris, who is also known as Ray said the robbery happened around 3am and it started in his neighbors compound.

In his words; “The incident happened on March 3, 2022 in our house on Winners Way Dawaki, Abuja. The robbers came around 3am. I heard our tenant screaming. The screams were strange; unknown to me the house was being raided by robbers. I opened the security door, and saw about 10 guys in the compound. They had machetes in their hands. As soon as I opened the door, one of them rushed at me. He aimed for my face with the machete in his hand but I was able to quickly dodge and ran back inside while I slammed the door shut immediately and locked it. I alerted everyone at home that there were robbers in the compound. The robbers started banging heavily on the door, trying to break in. As they were trying to break down the door, my dad was asking them what they wanted, so he could give them, but they said nothing and kept trying to force their way in. At that point, we knew it wasn’t a normal robbery attack.

One of the robbers later said through the window that, “You dey form strong, if I enter this house I go kill you”. After hearing those words, I felt I was going to die regardless, so I made a dua (supplication) to God, telling Him to forgive my sin as I would be joining Him soon. They were still trying to force the door open and threatening to shoot, but I wasn’t sure if they had guns.

Hearing them talking about shooting, I told my dad to leave the door, so he would not get injured being an old man. But my dad refused and insisted to be at the door, as we tried to push back. Later, I was able to persuade him to leave the door to me. After a while, the pressure from the robbers getting too much for me and I was losing strength. Soo after, they hit the door and it fell down completely.

They were able to get in and started attacking me with a machete. I struggled with them and took hold of one their machetes. I started fighting back. I was able to push back the three robbers that were attacking me. Getting to the compound, I saw that the robbers were actually more than just three guys that broke into the house.

I started feeling that they would kill me, so, I fought desperately. In the process, one of them hacked my face with a machete. The machete hit me directly on the right eye. I fell down and they continued hitting me while I was helpless. A voice from within told me to lie still and close my eyes. I did, so they left me after a while and went into the house.

They got to my room, took all my work tools, laptop,iPad, iPhone, android, and smart wristwatch. They took all the gadgets along with their chargers. They also took away my backpack containing N50,000 cash and a couple of my clothes. About at 6:15am that same day, they cleared out my two bank accounts. They also borrowed from Opay, using my logging details and opening an account with the First Bank with my BVN.

I was brutally attacked with machetes all over my body, including my head and face. This situation changed my life as I now have to adapt to a monocular vision for the rest of my life, a constant reminder that it could have been worse, the shock and trauma, and so on but I know things happen for a reason and I’m still alive and pushing…so Alhamdulillah.”

When asked if he regrets his actions, Idris said; “Why should one regret trying to protect his family? I don’t regret a single action I took that night.”