RICHMOND, B.C. — He still has nightmares about an attack that could have cost him his life but Olympic gold medal wrestler Daniel Igali returned to Canada on Wednesday saying he'll travel again to his native Nigeria.

Four armed men in their late teens or early 20s broke in on Igali and seven siblings in an apartment in the state capital of Yenagoa in late October, stabbing and pistol-whipping him before stealing some of his possessions.

The thugs got away with two laptop computers, cellphones and cash, but not before they stabbed the Olympian in the back of the head, believing he was not handing over everything.

He told a mob of reporters at Vancouver International Airport that the incident has left him emotionally scarred and suffering from nightmares.

"It's more the emotional aftershocks that are more difficult to deal with now than anything else.''

Police have arrested a suspect in the attack, he said.

Igali promised to return to his native country to continue the work that his foundation has been doing for the last six years.

He has built a school in his native village but it is not yet open.

Igali wants to ensure his work in Nigeria will keep young people from turning out like the men who attacked him.

Igali sought asylum in Canada because of political unrest in Nigeria after participating in the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria.

He honed his wrestling skills while studying at Simon Fraser University, taking a gold medal at the 1999 world championships and gold at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

Igali, who has the Order of Canada and ran unsuccessfully as a Liberal in the last B.C. election, said he still dreams about the attack.

"Sometimes, you know, you still have nightmares but that's about it,'' he said.

He said immediately afterward that he might never return to Nigeria but has since reconsidered.

"When you have such a traumatic experience, your initial thoughts are negative,'' he said.

"But the next day I started thinking that the reason I was there was to influence the lives of young kids so they don't turn out like the people who attacked me.''

His immediate plans include going to Toronto for an Olympic-related event and then returning to Nigeria to continue work on the school project.

The school is situated in an area where there is almost no violence at all, he said.

"What happened was in the city and in the cities you have young people who go about trying to rob people,'' Igali said. 

It's not clear whether the robbery was random but Igali suggested he might have been targeted.

"I want to think it's a random thing but I think with the kind of questions they asked me someone might have tipped them off I was there.''

He now has security in Nigeria, including police who guard his residence.

Igali initially thought the four men were among the many young people that come to his house seeking help.

"But when they started pulling out their guns and asking the questions I initially wanted to talk them out of it,'' he said.

With assistance from the Canadian government and ordinary Canadians, Igali raised nearly $450,000 to build a school in Enwari, the remote village where he was born. It is about 20 kilometres up river from the capital and not accessible by road.

He has also established a foundation to help young Nigerians.