Nigeria Content Online

Two days after a daring bank robbery attack
reportedly claimed the lives of two soldiers in Ihiala, Anambra State,
the state police command on Wednesday refuted the report and announced
the killing of four of the robbery suspects.

The Anambra State police spokesperson, Emeka
Chukwuemeka, stated that contrary to some media reports that two
soldiers were killed in the robbery attack, it was actually the robbers
that lost four of their men in the ensuing shoot-out after the robbers
had raided three banks.

“The police did not record any casualty in the
shoot-out but the robbers who lost four men from injuries sustained
during the encounter,” he said. “Neither was any other casualty
recorded in the attack.”

He said that a combined team of special units of
mobile police officers took part in the operation which lasted well
into the night as the remnant of the fleeing robbers were pursued into
the bush.

Although he acknowledged the arrest of some of the
robbery suspects, he could not however give their number, even as he
said investigations were still on.

A 20-man armed robbery gang yesterday reportedly
terrorized the community in a spree of robberies of three banks, and
carted away over N6 million. The bandits, who were said to have
operated in three vehicles; a Hilux truck, a Mitsubishi L300, and a
Sport Utility Vehicle, allegedly killed two soldiers in the operation
that reportedly lasted three hours.

Eyewitness accounts said the robbers used
sophisticated weapons during the operation, including dynamites, to
blow up the strong rooms of the said banks.

The gun fight

The accounts further stated that it was while the
robbers were celebrating their loot and spraying money on bystanders at
a local, Nkwo Ogbe, market in the area, that a combined team of
anti-terrorist squad and special anti robbery squad (SARS) swooped on
them.

In the resultant gun fight, two persons believed to
be soldiers were allegedly killed, and five members of the robbery
squad arrested, with a sum of about N6 million recovered from them.

Arms recovered from the gang include seven AK-47 riffles, two general purpose machine guns, and two rocket grenade propellers.