MOHAMED Nazmul, Vice-President of the Essequibo Hire Car and Mini-Bus Association, was robbed at knifepoint by two young Amerindian men on Tuesday night, at Red Village, Onderneeming, on the Essequibo Coast. The popular man, also known as ‘Smallie’, said the two men, carrying haversacks, hired him to take them from Anna Regina Car Park to Red Village.
He said they left the park around 18:30 hrs, for Red Village, which is located several miles away and, when they arrived at the destination, the passengers requested to be taken to the back street where one of the men placed a ‘Rambo’ knife to his throat and threatened to cut it if he did not hand over his money and gold ring.
Nazmul said the other man took away the $15,000 he had and his $22,000 gold ring and ordered his accomplice to cut his throat and throw him in the bush.
But the taxi driver said he held on to the man with the blade and pleaded with his assailant not to kill him for that small amount of money.
Nazmul said he begged for his life and was given a chance.
However, the man also took away his cell phone and, with his companion, escaped, leaving him fearful for his life in the darkness.
After the men disappeared, he saw residents and reported what took place also to Police at Suddie, but up to press time, no ranks had responded to investigate.
Nazmul is now advising hire car and minibus drivers that it is dangerous to accept passengers for Red Village in the night.
Red Village was carved out of dense jungle by the Food for the Poor Inc. some years ago, when many homes, a community centre, market and other facilities were built and donated to the beneficiaries, free of cost, by a Christian United States (U.S.) based family.