A Nigerian living in Trinidad and Tobago, Saubana Bel­lo, has begged to be repatriated back to his country of birth after armed robbers shot him six times.

According to local media in the Caribbean country, Bel­lo en­tered Trinidad on 5th No­vem­ber 2005 il­le­gal­ly from Venezuela and in search of a better life.

He got a job but six days after he entered the country, armed robbers struck and shot him, ironically, six times with the bullets hitting him in the head, up­per and low­er back and the leg.

“I ar­rived on No­vem­ber 5th with a friend, we looked for work and we found work at a se­cu­ri­ty firm. I start­ed im­me­di­ate­ly how­ev­er on No­vem­ber 11th, I was sta­tioned alone at busi­ness in Mar­aval”, he said in a Trinidad and Tobago Guardian report.

“Whilst on du­ty there was a rob­bery at a build­ing to the front I hid but the ban­dits saw me and ran and they pur­sued me, they shot at me and I was hit six times”.

“I was drenched in blood, I re­alised my feet and arms could not move, the last thing I re­mem­ber was say­ing the word hos­pi­tal to the those who came to my as­sis­tance.”

Bel­lo woke up in the hos­pi­tal three days af­ter the in­ci­dent at the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.

“I was in ex­cru­ci­at­ing pain, the com­pa­ny I worked for came to vis­it me and when their in­sur­ance agent was in­formed I was an il­le­gal im­mi­grant, that was the last time,” he ex­plained.

“I was ly­ing there at the hos­pi­tal and my life was shat­tered when doc­tors told me that I am paral­ysed from the waist down.”

Trinidad and Tobago Guardian wrote,

Bel­lo spent two years at the hos­pi­tal when he was dis­charged he had nowhere to go and no one to re­ceive him.

He was then placed at the Se­nior Cit­i­zens home which was fund­ed by the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment.

How­ev­er, this arrange­ment was can­celled in 2017 and now he owes the home in Ch­a­gu­nas mon­ey for the two years he spent in its care.

Bel­lo said he is grate­ful to Trinidad and To­ba­go for the help he has re­ceived thus far.

He added he re­ceived two life-threat­en­ing surg­eries cour­tesy the gov­ern­ment and Health Min­istry. Bel­lo thanked the church­es and many for as­sist­ing him dur­ing the dif­fi­cult time he spent here. But now Bel­lo said he wants to go home.

“My time here is done, I came to Trinidad in the search of a bet­ter life and with not be­ing able to walk, it is time for me to go home”, he lament­ed.

Bel­lo is a fa­ther of one.

“My son is now 17 years old and my wife is wait­ing on me to come home but ei­ther of us has the fund­ing to help me”, he said, “I have con­tact­ed friends and fam­i­ly home, it’s ex­treme­ly dif­fi­cult to raise the funds, life is hard in Nige­ria.”

Bel­lo has al­so reached out to the Niger­ian Em­bassy in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“The em­bassy knows of my case, they say am not the on­ly one want­i­ng their as­sis­tance to re­turn home and they are faced with lim­it­ed fund­ing’, he not­ed.

With one of the six bul­lets lodged in Mr Bel­lo’s back, he hopes that he can see his fam­i­ly soon and con­tin­ue liv­ing his life in Nige­ria.