Bank robbery: Bandits engage police in gun battle abandon N27m

It was a war-like situation in Festac Town, off the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, as policemen engaged armed robbers that robbed two new generation commercial banks in the early hours of Tuesday.

Two people were feared to have been hit by stray bullets as the police, supported by other security agencies, for several hours, engaged the robbers in gun battle, forcing them to abandon their loots which, Frank Mba, a deputy commissioner of police in charge of Area ‘E’ Festac, put at N27 million.

According to Mba, “Today (yesterday) October 13, 2015, at about 8.25am, the command received information on sporadic shootings on 4th Avenue, Festac Town. A joint team of policemen from the Area ‘E’ Command and Festac Division promptly responded to the incident.

“On arrival at the scene, the policemen engaged a gang of armed robbers numbering well over 40, all dressed in military camouflage and armed to the teeth. The police engaged them in a fierce gun battle that lasted several minutes notwithstanding the clear numerical disadvantage of the police at the beginning of this operation.

“The hot exchange of fire between the policemen and the robbers, who incidentally had shared themselves into two groups by simultaneously robbing two banks, forced the robbers to abruptly end their operation.

“They consequently abandoned the operation and they were also forced to abandon the sum of N27m but as they were fleeing they were equally forced to abandon a total of 240 life AK-47 life ammunition.

“The money was later recovered by the police and escorted to another branch of Diamond Bank located somewhere along 2nd Avenue where the money was deposited. The scene of crime was later cordoned off while support teams from the command headquarters, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) Ikeja, and also the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Panti, as well as men of the Nigerian Army from Ojo Cantonment joined us,” he said.

Mba said the commissioner of police had commenced investigations so that the suspects would be rounded up in time.

“Preliminary information shows that they came through the waterways and equally exited through the waterways,” he said.

He, however, added that the Marine Police had been actively involved in curtailing the activities of the hoodlums and pointed out the challenges.