Posted by By CHRISTOPHER OJI on
Two mobile policemen who abandoned their duty post at the NBN Bank, Akure in Ondo State to watch the U-20 Fifa World cup final between Nigeria and Argentina when armed robbers stormed the place have been detained at the Special Anti-robbery Squad, Adeniji Adele, in Lagos.
Two mobile policemen who abandoned their duty post at the NBN Bank, Akure in Ondo State to watch the U-20 Fifa World cup final between Nigeria and Argentina when armed robbers stormed the place have been detained at the Special Anti-robbery Squad, Adeniji Adele, in Lagos.
The five-man gang led by an Evangelist whose name the police gave as Akeem Benjamin carted away a whopping sum of N25million. A police source told Daily Sun that the policemen would face orderly room trial and thereafter be charged to court for armed robbery alongside the gang.
The source said that though the policemen might not be privy to the robbery but that they abandoned their duty post was enough to rope them in the robbery. He said "because how will they explain that they did not know about the robbery when they were stationed there to confront and chase away robbers, the policeman said.
He also said that preliminary investigation revealed that "the policemen after reporting at NBN Bank, booked their arms and left their duty post to watch the Nigeria/Argentina final match. When Nigeria was defeated, they started drinking and forgot about their primary duty. The robbers cashed in on that and stormed the bank.
Another police officer who did not agree with the story said: "It was an arrangement between the policemen and the robbers because the robbers did not plan the attack on that day. They must have concluded plans with our men."
Giving insight into how the robbers struck, the Commissioner of Police in-charge of SARS, Emmanuel Ezeozue said that the gang was led by two pastors who he named as Evangelist Akeem Benjamin and Pastor Matthew Adeniji. The robbers, according to him, stormed the bank at around 2.am, held the only security man on duty hostage while they used implement to open the vault and carted away over N25 million.
He said that earlier, the gang had stormed the Union Bank also in Akure but were not successful as one of the security guards escaped from the scene forcing the robbers to run away.
He said that the sum of N2.5 million was recovered from the robbers, adding that cars, two dane guns and two live cartridges were also recovered from them.
Ezeozue said that the suspects had all confessed to the crime and the leaders were posing as men of God. Even one of them has been writing spiritual books. The two were condemned criminals until they were granted presidential pardon and they claimed that they were born again," he said.
He called on the members of the public to assist the police by giving them information about criminals.
Commenting on the robbery attack, the chief security officer of the bank, Mr. Akinjaye Solomon debunked the claim that the bank was not security conscious saying: "What else can we do, we employed the services of two armed mobile policemen. We also have two other security men attached to the bank. One was sick, so couldn't come to work."
He said that the smashing of the robbery gang was commended by the bank, adding: "The recovery of cars bought with our money and the N2.5 million recovered by the police is a very serious pass mark for the police. I now have confidence in our police even though we still have some black sheep."
He assured customers that their money was safe as, "we are always security conscious and our staff are disciplined people."