Two second generation Nigerian banks were yesterday attacked by more than 40 fully armed robbers in 4th Avenue, Festac area of Lagos state and carted away huge sums of money.
Reports said the bandits who were dressed in military camouflage uniforms, attacked the banks after alighting from boats at a nearby canal and destroyed the entrance doors of the firstbank they entered with dynamite and immediately started sporadic shootings after gaining entrance into the banking hall.
After successful entrance into the first bank, another group of robbers diverted into the nearby bank and started same process as was done to the firstbank while shooting recklessly.
The operation lasted for hours involving exchange of gunshots between the robbers and Nigerian Police officers that arrived the scene about one and the half hours later.
Nonetheless, reports has it that a two year old toddler Mmesoma Ndirika, and her mother, Jane, lost their lives while in their apartment after being hit by stray bullets by the robbers who were unleashing bullets recklessly in all directions.
A recent report has it that a commercial motorcyclists has also lost his life in a private hospital after being hit by a stray bullet.
However, police authorities said they were able to recover about N27 million and other rounds of arms and ammunition abandoned by the bandits while fleeing from the scene. They could not give specific figure
According to a statement by the Police authorities, Giving a vivid account of the incident, the Area Commander, Festac and former Force spokesman, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Frank Mba said: “Today, the 13th of October, 2015, at about 8:25 am, the command received information of sporadic shootings going on somewhere around 4th Avenue, Festac town, Lagos. The joint team of policemen at Area E headquarters, Festac Division, promptly responded to the crime and on arrival at the scene, the policemen engaged the gang of robbers numbering well over 40, all dressed in military camouflage and armed to the teeth in a gun battle.
“We engaged them in a fierce gun battle that lasted several minutes. Not withstanding 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 divided themselves into two and were simultaneously robbing two banks, forced the robbers to immediately end their operations. They, consequently, abandoned their operation and also abandoned the sum of N27 million. As they were fleeing, they left a total of 240 AK47 live ammunition, and left the scene with money stolen from the bank. The money was later recovered by the policemen and taken to another branch of the robbed bank around 2nd Avenue, for deposit.
“The CP and other police stations around Ikeja were immediately informed of the operation but my men were sent earlier to see what was happening already. The CP, Fatai Owoseni, while regretting this incident, vowed to do everything humanly and operationally possible to make sure that the perpetrators of this crime are rounded up within the shortest possible time and brought to book.
“It should be noted that within the two banks, nobody died. One person sustained a minor injury in one of the banks and the person is adequately responding to treatment. On our part and that of the law enforcement agency, no injury, no death recorded. We heard about the two-year-old child and her mother who were hit by stray bullets. We are working on that. We are trying to liaise with the police to currently locate the girl and her mother and make sure that they are taken care of. A massive operation is currently going on and if there are other pieces of information that are not available now, we would make sure that we alert the press too.
“Preliminary information shows that they came in through the waterways and they equally exited through the waterways, because there is a canal very close to the area where the robbery occurred. The Marine Police have been involved in tackling the activities of hoodlums in waterways and their operations spread from Badagry to Epe to Lagos Island, Oshodi to Ikorodu and every water side area. But, you must equally understand that if the waters are not deep enough, we would not carry out such operations.” Vanguard
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