Robbers struck in front of Diamond Bank Mile One branch on Ikwerre Road in Port Harcourt, the capital of the oil rich Rivers State, today, killing a Police Corporal on escort duty and the driver of a Toyota Hilux van from the Rivers State Songhai Farms
The gang of four armed men also escaped with a huge sum of money, which the victims withdrew from the Diamond Bank, near the Divisional Police Headquarters, Mile One, Diobu, just beside the popular Mile One Market and the Secretariat of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
The operation which lasted less than 20 minutes, caused pandemonium in the nearby Mile One Market as it was completely deserted. Traders scampered for safety in the confusion.Eyewitnesses told P.M.News that the four robbers walked freely on Ikwerre Road and were so relaxed and confident as they shot sporadically into the air, shouting “Where are the Policemen…where are theyâ€.Men of the Rivers Police Command later recovered N1.5 million from the victims’ Hilux van, which the robbers left behind in a hurry.
Mr. George Onah,a journalist and the Bureau Chief of Vanguard newspaper in Port Harcourt, escaped death by the whiskers as he hid himself inside the car while the sporadic shooting was going on.
An official of Diamond Bank, who pleaded not to be named, told our reporter that the customers had concluded their transaction and left the bank, before the armed robbers struck, just in front of the bank.
They escaped with the killed policeman’s rifle and the bags of money, in the Toyota Camry car they came with.
â€Shortly after the armed robbers had escaped, policemen, accompanied by senior officers, came in many Toyota patrol vans and also deployed an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC), with large number of people gathering to confirm what happened.
The corpses of the policeman and that of the driver were later deposited by policemen at the morgue of an undisclosed hospital in Port Harcourt.
by pmnew
