By SIMON EBEGBULEM
BENIN — OVER one thousand police officers and detectives were deployed in strategic areas in Benin City and its environs as Edo State Police Command vowed to crack down on the robbers, who killed two of their officers and a civilian, Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile, more facts emerged, Thursday, as to how the two police officers and a civilian lost their lives in a robbery incident on Mission Road, Benin City, Wednesday.

It was further learnt that the victims met their death close to the Union Bank premises and not during a robbery operation at the bank.

The robbers, it was learnt, were on the trail of a particular target said to be carrying a large amount of money. Another account had it that the attackers were abductors, who were out to kidnap yet to be identified persons driving along the Mission Road.

Vanguard learnt that while the robbers held the entire road hostage, the policemen attached to the New Benin Police station, who were returning to their base after the day’s job, ran into the robbers, who were shooting sporadically.

The robbers on sighting the policemen men directed their fire at them, leading to the felling of two of them while a civilian passerby also died in the process.

However, the state Police Spokesman,  Mr Peter Ogboi, who vowed that the killers “must be apprehended,” added “our men are all over the nook and crannies of the state hunting for them. What they did was wicked and God will punish them. We have detectives on the streets and we will get them no matter how they try to run.”