By Suzan Edeh, Bauchi

BAUCHI State has for some time been featuring regularly in the news for the wrong reasons, especially those bordering on terrorists attacks. As if to compound the situation, stories of armed robbery have also begun to make the front pages. The frequency of these tragic occurrences leaves one with the impression that people in the state had become inured to them.

But that does not seem to be the case as recent events have shown. For instance, some residents of the state are still traumatized and yet to recover from the shock of a recent armed robbery attack at the popularly known AA Rano petrol station in the area that left one person dead while three other sustained injuries.

Vanguard Metro, VM, gathered that the robbery which occurred on September 24, 2013, caused pandemonium among the residents of the area as they scampered for the safety due to the sporadic gunshots that accompanied the attack. Although relative calm has since returned in the area, business activities remain low-keyed due to fear of another robbery attack. But when VM visited the scene, normal business activities had resumed, but security measures have been intensified in the place.

*Fuel station where the robbery took place

The Station Assistant Manager,Nuru Gambo, told VM that the robbers stormed the place “around 7.30 to 8.00 pm when we had finished the business of the day and were getting ready to close”. Continuing he said: “At that time, the station just received a consignment of a petrol and as the station assistant manager, I was working to ensure that we offload the petrol into the underground tank, which usually supplies petrol to the pumps of the station.

“Although it was quite dark for me to know  how many robbers came to the station, I noticed that when they came, they went straight to the office of the Station Manager who was still on duty. Some staff of the station who were on afternoon shift were still in their offices trying to balance their sales when some of the robbers went to the cashier’s office and collected all the money in his possession. I ran for my dear life when I started hearing gunshots. I was not the only one who ran away,  most passers-by also took to their heels; some even left their cars with the keys inside”.

One of the staff( name withheld) who was on the afternoon shift said that they were fortunate to survive the attack because there was an exchange of gunshots between the police who arrived the scene and the robbers.

He said: “When the robbers came inside the administartive office, they went to the Manager’s office and ordered him to give them money or they will kill him. He led them to the cashier’s office where they collected all the money in his possession. Some of us had to lay flat on the floor to escape stray bullets”.

The staff added that it was in the course of the exchange of fire between the police and the robbers that the vigilante man attached to station was killed, while three  police men sustained injuries.

The Bauchi State Police Commissioner, Mohammed Ladan confirmed the incident.  He said: “The hoodlums first attacked the filling station  where they killed the vigilante and immediately we received distress calls from the public on the attack, we deployed our men to the scene but when the robbers  sighted our men, they started shooting and we responded immediately and during the exchange of fire, three police men sustained  injuries. When the robbers fled, we decided to take the vigilante who was shot and the injured policemen to the hospital, but unfortunately when we got to the hospital, the vigilante man died”.

The Commisoner said the armed robbers abandoned their vehicles and escaped with bullet wounds, adding that the police has commenced investigation into the attack and condoled the area in search of the hoodlums that escaped with bullet wounds.

Items recovers from the armed robbers, according to the commissioner, are one Ak 47 rifle, two pistols and over 100 ammunition.

He called on the general public as well as management staff of various hospitals in the state to assist the police with information on any patient with bullet wounds.

A security source who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity said the armed robbers carted away huge amount of money from the filling station.