POLICE CHIEF

Police kill 2 armed robbers in Ibadan •Arrest 5 over kidnap of Saudi-based doctor’s wife.

Two suspected members of a six-man robbery gang were, on Sunday, killed by the police and security men attached to a petrol station they had gone to rob in Ibadan.

The armed gang arrived Lawibee Petrol Station at Gbekuba area of Apata, around 6.30 p.m. and asked for the manager of the petrol station.

A security man attached to the company reportedly shot one of them, killing him instantly.

Responding to a distress call, a patrol team from Apata police station went to the scene of the robbery, just as one of the armed robbers shot indiscriminately in an attempt to escape.

In the process, two men fell victim to his shots and died while a woman sustained gunshot wounds on her hand.

The fleeing armed robber was eventually brought down, and others were reported to have abandoned the Toyota Camry car they brought for the operation.

The armed gang had snatched the 2003 model of the Toyota Camry car, with registration number GH 416 ABC, at Odejayi area of Old Ife Road.

Earlier, they had reportedly proceeded to Obokun area of Eleyele and robbed at a petrol station, shooting a man before entering a block of flats beside it. The man reportedly died later in the hospital.

Items such as laptop computers, handsets, Jewellery and cash were collected from the victims while they also raped one of the occupants of the house who was on a visit, before leaving for Gbekuba area, where two of them were killed.

The robbers also snatched a Mercedes Benz 200, with registration number AV431GWA, to use as a get-away car as they tried to escape from Gbekuba area, shooting sporadically into the air to scare people away.

Meanwhile, the Ondo State Police Command has arrested five persons, including a lady, over the kidnap of the 65-year-old wife of Saudi Arabia-based medical doctor, Mrs Juliana Ogunleye.

The Police Public Relation Officer (PPRO), Adeniran Aremu, who confirmed the arrest, said two of the suspects were reportedly picked up at different locations in Akure, while others were arrested following the confession of the two earlier arrested.

Aremu did not offer further comment so as not to jeopardise ongoing investigations into the crime.

He said the culprits would be brought to book and that those still at large would soon be arrested by the detectives working on the kidnap.

Ogunleye was kidnapped at her house at Oluwatuyi area of Akure last month and was held captive by her abductors for 16 days before she was left off the hook.

The development led to a strike action by medical doctors in the state who protested against the kidnap of the wife of one of them.

When she was released, the abductors called the family members early in the morning to go and pick their mother on Ado-Ekiti Expressway in Akure.