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The damaged APC and the bullet-ridden security house
Image: Punch |
It
would seem the robbers are getting their rhythm back in Lagos. The police would
have to redouble their efforts to chase them out again.
The
Punch reported today that robbers struck in three different places in the past
three days. Two policemen were reportedly killed by armed robbers in the Ejigbo
and Orile Iganmu areas of Lagos State on Sunday.
The
robbers killed a police inspector in Ejigbo while a corporal was killed in
Orile Iganmu in the separate incidents. Three other policemen were injured in
the attack in Orile-Iganmu.
The
most daring was the one at Regal Seaview Estate, Lekki, Lagos, where robbers
reportedly ransacked houses for about an hour.
It
was learnt that the robbers, numbering over 20, besieged the estate at about
12:25am in four vehicles.
Eyewitnesses
said the robbers, who drove into the estate in a Honda, Toyota Sienna mini-bus,
a black Prado jeep and a Hilux van, were armed with various sophisticated
weapons.
It
was learnt that some of the robbers mounted roadblocks at Elf Junction and
Ikate Roundabout, which serve as access routes into the community while the
operation lasted.
One
of the security guards attached to the estate, who identified himself simply as
Emmanuel, said the attack seemed like a war.
He
said no sooner had he opened the gate for a resident than the robbers, who had
already taken position in the area, took control of the gate from him and
gained entry.
He
said, “Four of the robbers came down from the vehicles and flung the gate open.
They subsequently drove the vehicles into the estate and seized me. The other
guard who was manning the gate with me abandoned the duty post and ran into the
estate.
“They
asked if there were riot policemen in the estate and directed me to point at
houses occupied by rich men. When I declined to tell them, two of them who were
asked to stay with me beat me mercilessly and hit me with gun butts and also
threatened to kill me.”
He
said the robbers then moved from house to house before policemen attached to
the residence of a retired Deputy Inspector General of Police in the area tried
to resist them but were later overpowered by the bandits.
PUNCH Metro
learnt that the policemen attached to the DIG’s residence quickly radioed
Maroko Police Division and the Rapid Response Squad for reinforcement.
It
was gathered that policemen in six vans and an Armoured Personnel Carrier were
deployed in the estate. However, the robbers who had got wind of the
development started shooting sporadically into different directions.
A
resident, Ifeanyi Eze, said an attempt by the policemen to block the entrance
of the gate with the APC was rebuffed by the robbers.
He
said, “The fatalities would have been much if not that the policemen in the
other six vehicles stayed behind and allowed the APC to attack first. The APC came
under intense fire.
“The
policemen exchanged gunfire with them but this didn’t have much effect as they
were not given the chance to strategise and forge a coordinated attack. As a
result of this, they had to turn back and flee the scene. This gave the robbers
the leeway to escape with their loot.”
“The
windscreen of the APC marked RRS 287 LA was riddled with bullets and was said
to have developed a major fault as a result of the incident.
One
of the victims described the guns wielded by the bandits as “standard military
issued weapons” which are unconventional. He said the robbers fired about a
thousand times while the incident lasted.
He
said, “They were five in number in our house and were fully armed; they
immediately marched me and my mother to her room and started ransacking
everywhere.
‘’When
we could not give them the American dollars they asked for, they made away with
three laptops, my mum’s jewellery and, unfortunately, her wedding ring.”
