It is reported armed robbers on Monday rob a commercial bike rider using an ointment called ‘koto’ in Makeni, Northern Sierra Leone.

TV-News 24 reports that the okada rider was reportedly left on the side of the road, after a passenger he had earlier picked up allegedly put a burning ointment into his eyes, creating an opportunity for fellow armed robbers to steal his motor bike.

According to eyewitnesses, the ointment that the passenger allegedly smeared in the bike rider’s face – and into his eyes – was KOTO, an ointment with a burning and stinging sensation used for skin care remedies.

“The alleged robber reportedly had accomplices waiting nearby, who then took the motorcycle from the rider at knife point – after the ointment had been allegedly applied into his eyes,” sources with knowledge of the incident told TV-News24.

Around 2 a.m. local time, residents within Yiks road in Makeni city, said they heard the voice of man in distress, crying out for help.

This prompted youths around the community and a neighboring street to come out, traced where the voice calling for assistance was coming from.
They subsequently found the person crying out for help, and it was someone named Samuel Kalokoh, according to sources

Kalokoh narrated what he claimed happened to him that night, to TV-News24.

“I was riding, and heading home, when I met a guy around [an area called Plaza]. He stopped me and asked that I dropped him off at Yiks road. I agreed to drop him off especially, that, it is the route that leads to my house.

“On our way, we arrived at Alex street near where I was to drop him off at, and he asked me to stop. But I refused to stop and instead rode the bike at a low speed,” Kalokoh said.

The motorcyclist said it was at that moment that the man sitting behind him placed the ointment in his face.

“ppl,” Kalokoh said.

He continued that in the process of being smeared with the ointment, two other men came out from nowhere, and assisted the man he’d initially believed to be a genuine passenger.

“Two men then came and tried to get away with the bike. And when I held on to the clothes of one of them, they pulled out a knife on me and started hitting me with a stick as I shouted for help,” Kalokoh explained.

He said one of the alleged robbers eventually took the motorcycle, and the other two tried to escape.

Kalokoh however said that one of the thieves wasn’t able to run away as he was caught and “beaten by the youths in vengeance of the rapid thefts that had been happening around their vicinity.”

Colleague bike riders, Kalokoh said, took the suspected robber to Mena Police Station, where he was given medical paper(s) and referred for treatment at the hospital.

And it’s a statutory step that the police must undertake, according to the country’s laws, before they can commence any police investigations.

Police didn’t immediately provide a response to TV-News24 regarding this story.

However, TV-News24 confirmed that the reported stolen bike has been recovered, and is currently parked at the police station.

The suspected robber that the youth allegedly beat was admitted at Makeni Government hospital, and it’s unclear if he’s still there.