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Two armed robbery suspects were killed at the weekend in Ikire, Osun State, while three other members of the gang were also arrested as....
Two armed robbery suspects were killed at the weekend in Ikire, Osun State, while three other members of the gang were also arrested as the police and the mob swooped on the hoodlums after they had attacked and robbed a luxury bus.
Their arrest was effected by a combined team of Highway police patrol, hunters and vigilante groups in the town after the gang had successfully robbed over 50 passengers of a Kano bound-luxury bus.
Victims of the robbery while recounting their ordeal at the police headquarters in Osogbo said the suspects had feigned being passengers going to Kano and entered the bus with them in Lagos at about 12 midnight.
They, however, showed their true identity at about 2a.m in Ikire when six of them brought out their guns ordering the driver to stop, threatening to shoot if he refused the order.
The victims said having brought the bus to a halt, the suspects searched every passenger inside and dispossessed them of their money estimated to be about N600,000
Luck, however, ran against them when they were trying to divert the bus off the road to search and possibly cart away the victims' belongings as a police patrol vehicle was passing by and subsequently stopped to know what the bus could be doing at that odd hour.
"We left Lagos for Kano around 12 midnight on Friday.We were all thoroughly checked. We were suprised to hear some men pointing guns at the driver and ordering him to stop. We all panicked and they threatened to kill anybody who refused to cooperate. They have succeeded in robbing us of our valuables when Highway Patrol men came to find out what was going on. Immediately the robbers noticed this, they jumped down and ran into the bush," Jude Chidieberu, one of the victims explained.
The Highway patrol men reportedly alerted the Divisional Police officer in Ikire, Mr Adeleke Taiwo and after hours of searching, in company of the people of the town, they arrested three of the suspects while two died in the gun duel that ensued.
Meanwhile, a member of the gang was said to have escaped allegedly with their weapons, over N600,000, some stolen handsets and other valuables of the victims as only about N33,000 and five handsets out of the about 30 allegedly stolen were recovered.
Those arrested identified themselves as Paul Ezennaya, Afam Manncy and Ubong Anike Okuri, claiming they all came from Port Harcourt, Rivers State.