Armed robbers storm bank in Ondo, kill two policemen

Dare devil armed robbers on Thursday, invaded a new generation bank in Ifon, headquaters of Ose local government area of Ondo State, killing two police officers attached to the bank and carted away an undisclosed amount of money.

The robbers who operated for about 40 minutes unhindered, while commercial activities was halted, with residents of the town running for their lives as the robbers shot sporadically to scare away people of the agrarian community.

According to a source, the hoodlums numbering about 15, stormed the bank premises around 3:30 p.m., blowing off the bullet proof door of the bank with substance suspected to be dynamite before gaining entry.

The eyewitness said, the robbers packed all the money in the bank’s vault immediately they gained access into the bank,  ordering all the banks officials to lie down on the floor.

He explained that some of the policemen stationed at the bank however engaged to robbers in a gun duel outside the bank while two of the security were killed in the process.

It was gathered that the stray bullets from the armed robbers hit one of the residents of the agrarian community killing the victim on the spot.

The eyewitness said: “They came in three vehicles and they were up to 15 in number, they were heavily armed. When they got to the bank they could not enter easily because the bank had stopped  attending to customers. So, they had to blow the door up with dynamite.

“For several minutes, they were shooting sporadically, two of the policemen that engaged them were killed but none of the robbers was killed during the shooting.”

Another source said more policemen were drafted to the scene of the robbery and engaged the robbers in shooting before the bandits eventually ran away.

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mr Femi Joseph confirmed the incident and said the command deployed more officers and men into the scene of the incident while another team lead by the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Gbenga Adeyanju, went to the scene immediately after receiving the information.

He said: “It is unfortunate that we lost two of our men in the incident, but we are still on the trail of the robbers, they went to the bank with sophisticated weapon and in spite of that our men still engaged them.

“The CP himself led the team from Akure to the scene it was when they (robbers) knew that we were closing in on them that they ran away with bullet wounds. We shall get them soonest because our men are still on their trail.”