Robbers kill three people in Ado-Ekiti.

 

About 3 people Died yesterday on armed robbers invaded the premises of a bank located at the Okeyinmi Area of Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State Capital.

Numbering 20, the armed robbers were said to have stormed the bank at about 10a.m. in a convoy of four cars; a Toyota Hilux van, two Hiace buses and a Hummer Jeep.

Immediately they alighted, they were said to have pulled down the main entrance gate with the help of dynamite and a shoulder-propelled rocket launcher to gain entry into the banking hall.

It was learnt that the robbers caused such serious panic in the state capital that their action halted commercial activities throughout the day.

The bodies of three deceased persons were later deposited at the morgue at the Ekiti University Teaching Hospital in the state capital, while those who sustained gunshots were receiving medical attention at the same hospital from a team of experts led by the hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Patrick Adegun.

It was a hectic day for the University Teaching Hospital staff, as they struggled to control the huge crowd that besieged the premises of the hospital to sympathise with the victims and check on their relatives.

When the officers of the special security outfit, the Swift Response Squad, were allegedly slow to respond to the robbery, an assistant on internal security to the state governor was said to have led a team of security men attached to the governor to the robbery scene to challenge the robbers.

The robbers, according to the official, Deji Adesokan, escaped through the Afao–Ire–Ilupeju road, in the process of which a person was also reported to have been shot dead as the robbers scampered to safety.

A 15-year-old boy, Fasuan Samuel, and a 75-year-old man, Francis Afolabi, were among the 10 people who escaped death but sustained gunshots wounds during the sporadic shooting by the armed men, who were virtually unchallenged for most of the hour during which the operation lasted.

Some of the buildings and vehicles parked at the vicinity of the bank, including a two-storey building that housed the state office of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Correspondents’ Chapel and a Mercedez Benz car belonging to NUJ chairman in the state, Tai Oguntayo, were riddled with bullets.

Over five houses and several vehicles were also damaged by the armed men during the robbery operation.

After the suspected robbers made their escape, members of the public staged a protest on the major streets of Ado Ekiti to condemn the police and other security agencies for their slow responses to the robbery attack.

The protesters blocked the popular Okeyinmi and Okesa roads, blaming the deaths on the incompetence and poor response mechanism of the police to such an occurrence.