/ 9 August 2001

NIGERIAN SLAYS KILLER SNAKE, BAGS REWARD

A NIGERIAN snake charmer, Umaru Daura, picked up a 100 000 naira ($900) reward in Kano on Tuesday after slaying a snake reputed to have killed 34 people. Daura walked into the state government headquarters in Kano, northern Nigeria’s largest city, Tuesday afternoon with the corpse of a slim 1,5-metre long snake. The killer snake, if indeed it is just one snake, has been on the loose in the village of Rimin Gata, and three nearby villages close to Kano, since July 27 and residents there said on Tuesday that the toll of those who had died rose at the weekend to 34. – AFP