Suspected armed robbers on Thursday, stormed a bank in Ifon, Ose local government area of Ondo State, killing two police officers attached to the bank and carted away an undisclosed amount of money.
According to an eyewitness, the gunmen numbering 15 stormed the premises of the bank around 3pm, blew up the bullet proof door of the bank with substance suspected to be dynamite before gaining entry.
The robbers who operated for about 40 minutes unhindered, while commercial activities was halted, with residents of the town running for their lives as the robbers shot sporadically to scare away people of the agrarian community.
The eyewitness said immediately the robbers gained access into the bank, they ordered all the banks officials to lie down on the floor then proceeded to pack all the money in the bank vault.
"On entering into the bank, the robbers packed all the money in the vault, while some of them engaged the policemen in a gun duel outside the bank," the witness said.
While getting away, the policemen attached to the bank stationed at the bank engaged the robbers in a gun duel outside the bank. Two of the officers were killed in the process. A stray from the gunmen hit one of the residents, killing him instantly.
"They came in three vehicles and they were up to 15 in number, they were heavily armed. When they got to the bank they could not enter easily because the bank had stopped attending to customers. So, they had to blow the door up with dynamite," the witness said. "For several minutes, they were shooting sporadically, two of the policemen that engaged them were killed but none of the robbers was killed during the shooting"
Spokesperson for the Ondo State Police Command, Femi Joseph, who confirmed the incident said the command deployed more officers and men in the scene.
"It is unfortunate that we lost two of our men in the incident, but we are still on the trail of the robbers, they went to the bank with sophisticated weapon and inspite of that our men still engaged them," he said."The commissioner of police himself led the team from Akure to the scene, it was when they (robbers) knew that we were closing in on them that they ran away with bullets wounds. We shall get them soonest because our men are still on their trail." he added.
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