• Kill 2 police officers, injure others

•  Cart away over N100m

By PETER DURU, Makurdi

THERE was pandemonium in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, midweek, when four dare-devil, heavily armed robbers laid siege  on the ever-busy Ishaya Bakut road, less than 500 meters from the ‘B’ Division Police station in the heart of the town. They shot and killed two Police officers attached to the Special Anti Robbery Squad, SARS.

The slain police officers were reportedly attached to the Benue State Secretariat and were said to have been detailed to escort a finance officer in one of the state ministries to withdraw an undisclosed huge sum of money from one of the new generation banks in the town.

The operation, which lasted less than five minutes, ended with the gang carting away the money from their victims, after killing the escorts and injuring the driver of the vehicle and the female finance officer.

This latest incident happened when the police is perceived to be recording unprecedented success in its fight against crime and criminality in the entire state.

Eyewitnesses said the robbers who stormed the scene in an unmarked car initially operated like Police officers on stop-and-search operation.

According to the witnesses who craved anonymity, “we saw four heavily armed men stop and park by the road side; initially we thought they were police men on stop-and-search duty. Like you know, these days, our police men go about wielding guns without uniforms, so, it becomes even difficult for one to know who is a genuine police officer and who is not, that was what got most of us confused.

“So, when they started the operation, we thought they were Police men and no one raised an alarm since the operation took place just a stone’s throw from the ‘B’ Division Police Station, until they attacked the vehicle conveying the police men.”

The occupants of the state government owned Hilux Van with registration number BN07 A07 were “the driver, a woman and the deceased two police officers.

“The vehicle just drove out of one of the new generation banks not too far from the spot where the operation took place. We suspect that huge sums of money belonging to the state government was withdrawn from the bank since the bag that was carted away was quite heavy.

The four heavily armed men who came in a black Toyota Corolla  barricaded the road, just a stone throw from the bank.

“They did not flag down any vehicle until they saw the Hilux and flagged it down but the driver of the car refused to stop, they immediately started raining bullets on the vehicle and before the police escorts could react, they were shot severally and killed.

It was like what we see in the movies, as they shot sporadically, everybody scampered for safety, even vehicle owners and commercial motorcycle operators abandoned their vehicles and motorcycles and ran for their lives.”

“The gang quickly moved into the car, dragged down the two survivors and removed the big bag of money, after which they drove off, heading towards Aliade.

Few minutes after they drove off, we all ran to the car, and discovered that the driver and the female occupant sustained injuries but the two police escorts died on the spot. Just few minutes after the operation, the Police drove to the scene and took away the corpses of their dead colleagues and the two other injured occupants of the vehicle.

Though no one can precisely say the amount of money that was taken away by the gang but some are speculating that it could be well over N100 million,” they stated.

Operational vehicles

When contacted,Benue state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Deputy Superintendent, DSP Daniel Ezeala confirmed the story. He added that the victims were conveying an undisclosed sum of money to the state secretariat. Ezeala said investigations into the incident had already commenced adding that the police had already recovered the operational vehicles of the robbers.

“We have been able to recover the black Corolla car with which they carried out the operation; the get-away car was recovered within Makurdi town but we are still carrying out our investigations,” Ezeala said.

It would be recalled that over a year ago, the same scenario played out at a spot not too far from the scene of this latest robbery. In that particular instance, no life was lost but the bandits made away with over N50million belonging to one of the state government parastatals.

THERE was pandemonium in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, midweek, when four dare-devil, heavily armed robbers laid siege  on the ever-busy Ishaya Bakut road, less than 500 meters from the ‘B’ Division Police station in the heart of the town. They shot and killed two Police officers attached to the Special Anti Robbery Squad, SARS.

The slain police officers were reportedly attached to the Benue State Secretariat and were said to have been detailed to escort a finance officer in one of the state ministries to withdraw an undisclosed huge sum of money from one of the new generation banks in the town.

The operation, which lasted less than five minutes, ended with the gang carting away the money from their victims, after killing the escorts and injuring the driver of the vehicle and the female finance officer. This latest incident happened when the police is perceived to be recording unprecedented success in its fight against crime and criminality in the entire state.

Eyewitnesses said the robbers who stormed the scene in an unmarked car initially operated like Police officers on stop-and-search operation.

According to the witnesses who craved anonymity, “we saw four heavily armed men stop and park by the road side; initially we thought they were police men on stop-and-search duty. Like you know, these days, our police men go about wielding guns without uniforms, so, it becomes even difficult for one to know who is a genuine police officer and who is not, that was what got most of us confused.

“So, when they started the operation, we thought they were Police men and no one raised an alarm since the operation took place just a stone’s throw from the ‘B’ Division Police Station, until they attacked the vehicle conveying the police men.”

The occupants of the state government owned Hilux Van with registration number BN07 A07 were “the driver, a woman and the deceased two police officers.

“The vehicle just drove out of one of the new generation banks not too far from the spot where the operation took place. We suspect that huge sums of money belonging to the state government was withdrawn from the bank since the bag that was carted away was quite heavy. The four heavily armed men who came in a black Toyota Corolla  barricaded the road, just a stone throw from the bank.

“They did not flag down any vehicle until they saw the Hilux and flagged it down but the driver of the car refused to stop, they immediately started raining bullets on the vehicle and before the police escorts could react, they were shot severally and killed.

It was like what we see in the movies, as they shot sporadically, everybody scampered for safety, even vehicle owners and commercial motorcycle operators abandoned their vehicles and motorcycles and ran for their lives.”

“The gang quickly moved into the car, dragged down the two survivors and removed the big bag of money, after which they drove off, heading towards Aliade.

Few minutes after they drove off, we all ran to the car, and discovered that the driver and the female occupant sustained injuries but the two police escorts died on the spot.

Just few minutes after the operation, the Police drove to the scene and took away the corpses of their dead colleagues and the two other injured occupants of the vehicle.  Though no one can precisely say the amount of money that was taken away by the gang but some are speculating that it could be well over N100 million,” they stated.

Operational vehicles

When contacted,Benue state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Deputy Superintendent, DSP Daniel Ezeala confirmed the story. He added that the victims were conveying an undisclosed sum of money to the state secretariat. Ezeala said investigations into the incident had already commenced adding that the police had already recovered the operational vehicles of the robbers.

“We have been able to recover the black Corolla car with which they carried out the operation; the get-away car was recovered within Makurdi town but we are still carrying out our investigations,” Ezeala said.

It would be recalled that over a year ago, the same scenario played out at a spot not too far from the scene of this latest robbery. In that particular instance, no life was lost but the bandits made away with over N50million belonging to one of the state government parastatals.