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Robbers raid Ado-Ekiti estate
By Odunayo OgunmolaPublished TodayNewsRating: Unrated
It was a black weekend for the residents of Shelter View Estate on Afao Road in Ado-Ekiti when a two-man robbery gang held them hostage for several hours, stealing cash and properties worth millions of naira.

Besides, suspected armed robbers killed a mobile policeman attached to a second generation bank in Lagos.

In the Ado-Ekiti incident, the hoodlums, who were armed with generators and other equipment to ease their operation, injured 10 of their victims. They are being treated in various hospitals across the capital city.

They invaded the estate on Friday night and reportedly carried out their operation unhindered for over three hours, making away with money, laptops, mobile telephones and jewellery. The hoodlums reportedly wore police uniforms. They arrived at about midnight and shot sporadically into the air to announce their arrival to the panic-stricken residents.

The attack, which was the second in two months, saw the robbers ransacking all the flats located within the estate.

They broke into people’s homes with machines which they used to break the burglary-proofs.

A resident, who simply identified herself as Mrs. Akinbo, told reporters that the robbers snatched her navy blue Audi A4 car to convey their loot.

Her words: "They banged the metal door and asked us to open. Initially, we didn’t want to open but when we discovered that they would enter with force, we came and opened the door but before that they had brought down a part of the wall.

"Four of them came into our flat. The others were busy with other flats. They asked for money but I told them that I didn’t have any money. But one of my in-laws brought out some money when they threatened to shoot one of my kids.

"After their operation, they came back and asked me to give them my car key since I did not give them any money."

Another resident, Mrs. Omotola Dada, said she was robbed of about N55, 000 at gunpoint.

The residents alleged that policemen only arrived in the estate at about 4:00 a.m. - long after the hoodlums had left the scene.

Police spokesman Mohammed Jimoh confirmed the incident.

He said the state command would do everything possible to arrest the robbers and bring them to justice.

Jimoh said suspect had been arrested in connection with the incident.

The Lagos incident occurred at a popular soft drink company on the Lagos/Ibadan expressway, near the old Lagos toll gate.

The Nation

learnt that the robbers were already operating in the area when the bullion van came to move cash from the company to the bank’s head office.

The driver of the bullion van was shot in the head.

He is being treated at an undisclosed hospital. The teller with them escaped unhurt.

Sources said the policeman and his colleagues had gone earlier in the day to move cash but they were told that the cash was not ready.

When they returned in the afternoon to pick the cash, an uncommon silence pervaded the area. Everywhere looked deserted.

The mobile policeman, it was learnt, alighted from the bullion van and moved straight to the gate.

On opening the gate, one of the robbers, who were within the company’s premises, opened fire on him.

When he saw that the policeman was not dead, he moved closer, snatched his rifle and fired another shot.

Deputy police spokesman Onyeisi Nwaolai said he was not aware of the incident.

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