The timely intervention of the anti-robbery squad of the Ogun State Police Command on Friday prevented some armed robbers, who had successfully robbed a Sagamu branch of First Bank Plc, from escaping with the money.
The police, who killed the leader of the gang in a gun duel, also arrested two highways robbers, who fled after robbing people in Ibafo area.
An eyewitness account, corroborated by the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Emmanuel Ayeni, said the robbers arrived the bank at about 8.30a.m and encountered little difficulties in gaining access to the bank’s vault.
A pastor, who was injured while scampering for safety in the ensuing confusion, told our correspondent that the 10 robbers, led by a woman, arrived the bank in a Lagos-registered commercial bus and took strategic positions before raiding the bank.
The situation turned sour for the bandits when the vigilante group in the area mobilised and engaged the robbers in a gun duel for over 30 minutes.
The robbers eventually escaped with the sacks of money, but ran into a detachment of policemen from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
SARS had received a distress call and immediately deployed a detachment of its personnel to the town with an Armoured Personnel Carrier.
Ayeni said, “While on their way, the policemen had their sight on the reported scene of the robbery. The robbers, who had already loaded their loot into the bus, opened fire on the APC, attempting to kill the occupants. The officers engaged the robbers in a gun duel and one of the robbers, suspected to be the leader, was killed.”
He added that the policemen recovered the N5.48 million seized from the bank.
Ayeni explained that the police had to lay an ambush for the robbers to ensure that members of the public were not caught in the crossfire.
He said the money was displayed as an exhibit, while the bus used for the raid was set ablaze by the angry residents of the town. The police commissioner said the police were still on the trail of the fleeing members of the gang.
Ayeni also paraded a commercial driver and his conductor, who were pursued and arrested by members of SARS, after they fled the Ibafo end of the Lagos Ibadan Expressway where they had allegedly robbed motorists of their valuables. Operating with a Lagos-registered commercial bus, the duo were said to have blocked one end of the expressway and robbed road users.
He added that on sighting a police team, the duo sped off while the SARS team eventually caught up with them at the Sagamu intersection of the expressway, where the fleeing driver attempted to overrun the riot policemen at the check point. He explained that the police had shot the tank of the bus and hit one of the driver’s legs to demobilise the suspected robbers.
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