One Of The Seven Nigerian Men Arrested For Robbery In Abu Dhabi Pleads Guilty

One of the seven Nigerian men accused of robbing a money exchange office in Abu Dhabi of Dh970,000 on Monday, May 8, claimed he carried out the robbery alone and urged the court to acquit the rest of the defendants.

The seven-member gang named Dark Sky is on trial at the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court of First Instance on charges of robbery and forging official documents.

Official court records stated that the gang members, aged between 30 and 35, carried out the robbery at the money exchange office in the Musaffah area in January. They used knives and iron tools to threaten the workers to hand them the cash.

"The men had interrupted the money exchange staff during their official working hours, when they were in the process of transferring funds to special vehicles meant for the purpose," said prosecutors.

The gang had been closely monitoring the money transferring activity at the exchange for a few days before the robbery and timed their arrival accordingly, according to police investigations.

Officers said the men forced the employees of the exchange to hand over the money from the vans to them before fleeing in a car hired from another emirate with forged documents.

In a previous hearing, all men denied the charges of robbery and forging official documents to rent cars used in the robbery.

And in the latest hearing on Monday, one of the men - the fourth defendant in the case - retracted his earlier denial and told the court that he was guilty of the charges.

"I am guilty of the charges. I'm solely responsible for the robbery and all these other men had no hand in it," he said in the court.