Robbers attack Delta police commissioner’s convoy
By Shola Adebayo, Olusola Fabiyi, Fidelis Soriwei, Olalekan Adetayo and Mike Odiegwu
Published: Friday, 13 Feb 2009
The Commissioner of Police, Delta State Command, Mr. Joshua Oshiomogor, on Thursday morning escaped death when armed robbers attacked his convoy at the Abudu axis of the Benin—Agbor Road.

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Photo file
Inspector-General of Police, Mike Okiro

However, an unnamed driver of his escort vehicle and a policeman in his convoy were unlucky as they sustained serious gunshot injuries in the encounter.

But just as the attack occured, a policeman attached to a micro-finance bank located at Adura Bus Stop on Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Lagos, allegedly killed two persons.

Our correspondents in Edo and Delta States gathered that Oshiomogo was returning to Asaba from Abuja, when the bandits who were heading from the opposite direction suddenly rained bullets on his siren-blaring convoy.

It was gathered that the convoy managed to escape to Agbor, where the injured policeman and the driver were admitted into an undisclosed hospital.

The bandits, according to police sources, are suspected to be the same that killed five of the six policemen that lost their lives in a robbery in Benin on Wednesday.

The Commissioner of Police, Edo State Command, Mr. Danlami Yar’Adua, and the Police Public Relations Officer, Delta State Command, Mr. Charles Muka, confirmed the attack on Oshiomogo.

But Yar’Adua and Muka said only the driver was shot on the thigh.

The Edo State Police boss said that policemen from his command and their counterparts in Delta State traced the robbers to Abudu and retrieved some guns that they took away from the policemen that they killed on Wednesday.

Yar’Adua added that a Toyota Hilux Patrol van was also recovered from the armed robbers.

He said that the robbers had traced a bullion van from Asaba to Benin when one of the police patrol vehicles that were mobilised to prevent them from entering Benin ran into them on Wednesday.

The police boss said that through the combined efforts of the police and vigilance groups in the villages around Oza-Igbanke Road in Delta State, the police located the robbers where they were sharing money.

He claimed that the policemen killed one of the bandits on the spot and recovered arms and ammunition from the scene.

In Abuja, the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, sympathised with the families of the six policemen that were killed in Edo State.

Okiro, who gave a vivid account of the robberies in the state on Wednesday, appealed to residents of the state to volunteer information to policemen in order to get the robbers arrested.

He said at a press conference on Thursday that a combined team of police officers and vigilance groups were already combing the bushes in search of the fleeing bandits.

Okiro, whose views were conveyed at the news conference by the Force Public Relations Officer, Mr. Emmanuel Ojukwu, said that a policeman was lost in the incident in which the bandits attacked a bullion van belonging to a bank.

He said that the robbers were unfortunate as the bullion van was empty.

According to him, as soon as the incident was reported, a detachment of anti-robbery policemen were drafted from Benin to engage the robbers in a shoot-out.

He said, “As soon as the attack was reported, Anti-Robbery men from Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Benin, proceeded to Owa, and engaged the robbers.

“One of them was killed, but two policemen sustained injuries and were hospitalised.

“The escaping robbers later laid ambush at Ugonoba and attacked the police reinforcement, killing five police officers and removing their riffles.”

He added that at that point, another police reinforcement engaged the robbers, forcing them to abandon their three vehicles and flee into the bush.

Items recovered from them, he claimed, were 54 live rounds of 7.6 ammunition, three AK 47 magazines, and N2, 000.

The police boss said that as the robbery was on in Edo State, a radio message was sent to Delta State to alert and moblise policemen from there.

The robbers, he added, later re-emerged in Agbor where they attempted to attack a convoy of Central Bank of Nigeria bullion van.

He said that the robbers were not so lucky as they lost a member while being repelled.

The police chief stated that one AK 47; 12 Ak 49 riffles; one G3 riffle; 1,279 live ammunition for AK 47 and N30, 000. were also recovered from them.

However, the Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of Zone, Benin, Mr. Sulaiman Fakai, blamed Wednesday’s robberies on lack of Armoured Personnel Carriers by the zone.

He lamented that the zone which comprised Bayelsa, Delta and Edo States, had only one APC, which at the moment was not functioning.

Fakai said, “The incident of Wednesday is very sad, we lost about five men, including one DPO and one DCO. We would have done better and suffer less casualty if we had enough patrol vehicles and other amenities such as APCs and bullet proof vests.

“We have only one APC at the command in Benin and we don’t have enough vehicles for patrol.”

Also on Thursday, four persons were feared killed in two separate incidents in Lagos.

Two of the victims were reportedly killed by a policeman attached to a micro-finance bank located at Adura Bus Stop on Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.

Although police authorities in the state claimed that the victims, a driver of a commercial bus and his assistant, were only injured and were responding to treatment in a hospital, eyewitnesses said they were shot dead.

Our correspondents learnt that trouble started when the commercial bus driver had a face-off with one of the drivers of the bank who was negotiating his way into the bank premises.

The argument that ensued reportedly forced policemen on guard at the bank to come to the aid of the bank‘s driver.

In the process, one of the policemen allegedly shot the commercial bus driver and his assistant at a close range.

The situation infuriated eyewitnesses who quickly mobilised and caused a stir on the ever-busy expressway.

It took the intervention of policemen from Alakuko Police Station and riot policemen drafted to the scene from Police Mobile Force Squadron 22, Ikeja, for normalcy to return to the area.

The Deputy Police Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Command, Mr. Olumide Jimoh, confirmed the incident but insisted that the victims were not dead.

Jimoh said that the errant policeman who was accused of ”misuse of firearms” was initially detained at Alakuko Police Station before the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Marvel Akpoyibo, ordered his transfer to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti street, Yaba.

In the second incident, a Mercedes Benz 911 marked XA 583 NEN reportedly ran over two occupants of a motorcycle at Alakija area in Lagos, killing them on the spot.

Police source at Satellite Town Police Station gave the names of the driver of the vehicle as Emmanuel Tawari and those of the victims as Julius Usifo and Felix Onyewenu.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20090213012545

If this could happen to the a senior police officer,wat of the masses

These robbers have got the audacity of _criminal hope. This is the epitome of effrontry. Another challenge for the police.

if more police commissioners and other top government officials and politicians are been attacked it will make them to refine the police force.today the police men concentrate majorly in collecting and extorting money from the public and convicting innocent people.i dont even know what the igp is doing about it.this is what you get when people who lacks integrity holds public office.these robbers are heartless.is a pity.

so robers now rob robers? na wa o

While I don't wish harm on anyone, perhaps if public office holders including all governors, senators and the president were routinely attacked by robbers then the huge security problem exacerbated by unemployment and lack of opportunity and prospects would be taken more seriously and measures put to address it. Perhaps if political office holders had to use Nigerian hospitals and rely on the Nigerian health system then measures would be put in place to address the quality of the health service in the country. Perhaps if the education of relatives of politicians were dependent on the Nigerian educational sytem then the system would be addressed. Perhaps if the "ruling" class had to live like the people they "rule" then measures would be put in place to improve the quality of life of the people. For government to be "moral" the people being governed have to be willing to hold their government to a higher degree of morality instead of waiting for a new leaf to be turned.

NDM - Get Involved
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-230880.0.html

Marymos:

if more police commissioners and other top government officials and politicians are been attacked it will make them to refine the police force.

No disrespect to you at all but I doubt refining of the police force would happen if these lawmakers are being atacked. I think they'll just upgrade their cars and automobiles from bomb-proof to everyattack-proof.

I can bet you on that.

At times like this, it is imperative that Nigeria should look inward, with a view to identifying and deploying all traditional means of Juju-magical protection from ballistic attack, rather than sheepishly continuing to rely on outdated Western technological solutions, such as bullet-proof vehicles and attire.

There you go.

This is just the beginning!

True talk

tpacalipse:

so robers now rob robers? na wa o

yes! dog eat dog.

oh robbers just do us a favour by concentrating your operations on the Nigerian Police force, attack the commissioners, DCP ACP FCP ,AIG,DIG all of them attack them robb their houses and spare the masses.

Foolish police force!!!

Lagosboy You are very funny.I agree wit u 2 some extent.That will make them to seat up.

Sincerely, I have lost confidence in our public security system long ago. A high ranking police officer ( don't know his position but he should be as high as AIG) lives in the same estate with us and there is usually tight security(police) presence in the evenings, and my family members used to feel confident, easily quoting that to claim that our area is safe. But I always dismiss this that we are on our own o. That cannot stop the 'owners' from coming to claim their 'properties'. Afterall, a couple of yaers ago it was reported in papers how armed robbers robbed a police station in Katsina state at broad daylight, carting away the policemen's salaries.

Sincerely, I have lost confidence in our public security system long ago. A high ranking police officer ( don't know his position but he should be as high as AIG) lives in the same estate with us and there is usually tight security(police) presence in the evenings, and my family members used to feel confident, easily quoting that to claim that our area is safe. But I always dismiss this that we are on our own o. That cannot stop the 'owners' from coming to claim their 'properties'. Afterall, a couple of yaers ago it was reported in papers how armed robbers robbed a police station in Katsina state at broad daylight, carting away the policemen's salaries.

When a band of 40-50 man strong gang attacks a bank, a convoy, or company; it's no more just armed robbers, they're Western style army trying to take over our nation. If the government understands this, then they will stop wasting time with peace-keeping in other countries and concentrate in making our people safe again. This type of operation call for the use of the army, airforce, SSS, police, and of course juju to subjugate the criminals to the rule of law.