Robbers Strike Rivers.
Robbers struck in front of Diamond Bank Mile One branch on Ikwerre Road in Port Harcourt, the capital of 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.
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 they”.
Vehicles around the scene were not spared as people ran away.
Men of the Rivers Police Command later recovered N1.5 million from the victims’ Hilux van, which the robbers left behind in a hurry.
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. The rear glass of his KIA Rio car, with registration: Lagos: BQ 532 AGL, was not spared as it was shattered by the robbers’ bullets.
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.
According to Onah:“I left my office beside the bank at 2:57 pm, with the intention of driving my KIA car to the correspondents’ chapel office at 49, Ikwerre Road, to use the cyber café.
I entered the car and was about reversing to Ikwerre road, to move forward and make U-turn to the chapel, when I started hearing gun shots.“
I completely folded myself and bent by the pedals and the passenger’s seat, for the armed robbers not to see me, but I was conscious of what was happening and using the rear view mirror to monitor what was going on.
“The armed robbers, who came with an unmarked Toyota Camry salon car, thought I wanted to block them from operating, making them to shoot from the rear glass, probably with the intention of killing me, in order not to hinder their operation.
They started with my car.“The covered Hilux, with foreign registration number (758 ONG RB), was about leaving the bank, when the armed robbers first shot at the driver, who died on the spot.
They then pumped bullets into the head of the policeman, who sat with the driver in front, shattering his skull and collected his AK-47 rifle.“
The armed robbers then moved to the back of the Hilux vehicle and pulled out bags of money.
They escaped with the killed policeman’s rifle and the bags of money, in the Toyota Camry car they came with.“When I came out of my car, people around could not believe what they saw.
They thought I was a ghost, presuming that I had been killed by the robbers’ bullets. I give God the glory.
”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.
Robbers struck in front of Diamond Bank Mile One branch on Ikwerre Road in Port Harcourt, the capital of 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.
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 they”.
Vehicles around the scene were not spared as people ran away.
Men of the Rivers Police Command later recovered N1.5 million from the victims’ Hilux van, which the robbers left behind in a hurry.
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. The rear glass of his KIA Rio car, with registration: Lagos: BQ 532 AGL, was not spared as it was shattered by the robbers’ bullets.
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.
According to Onah:“I left my office beside the bank at 2:57 pm, with the intention of driving my KIA car to the correspondents’ chapel office at 49, Ikwerre Road, to use the cyber café.
I entered the car and was about reversing to Ikwerre road, to move forward and make U-turn to the chapel, when I started hearing gun shots.“
I completely folded myself and bent by the pedals and the passenger’s seat, for the armed robbers not to see me, but I was conscious of what was happening and using the rear view mirror to monitor what was going on.
“The armed robbers, who came with an unmarked Toyota Camry salon car, thought I wanted to block them from operating, making them to shoot from the rear glass, probably with the intention of killing me, in order not to hinder their operation.
They started with my car.“The covered Hilux, with foreign registration number (758 ONG RB), was about leaving the bank, when the armed robbers first shot at the driver, who died on the spot.
They then pumped bullets into the head of the policeman, who sat with the driver in front, shattering his skull and collected his AK-47 rifle.“
The armed robbers then moved to the back of the Hilux vehicle and pulled out bags of money.
They escaped with the killed policeman’s rifle and the bags of money, in the Toyota Camry car they came with.“When I came out of my car, people around could not believe what they saw.
They thought I was a ghost, presuming that I had been killed by the robbers’ bullets. I give God the glory.
”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.
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