It was like an epic Hollywood scene. Five young men, dressed
in military fatigue uniforms and wielding AK47 automatic rifles, just emerged
from the nearby waterway bordering the lagoon along Ikoyi/Lekki bridge.
Their mission was obvious because they started firing from
all fronts. It was the peak hour when workers were on their way home.
Pandemonium ensued as people ran helter-skelter. Some
motorists on top of the bridge nearly plunged into the river safe for the rails
that barricaded them. There was mass race towards the Ikoyi end of the bridge. The race transcended age limit as both
the young and old took to their heels.
- ATTACK ON TARGET
According to Vanguard, while this lasted, the gun totting
hoodlums proceeded towards their target. There was no doubt that their fire
power was to clear way for the accomplishment of their mission. They entered by
the lagoon into an empty but fenced land beside a shopping complex which
borders FCMB and Stanbic Bank, IBTC, by the roundabout of the Lekki end of the
bridge.
They forced the miscreants in the empty plot of land to open
the makeshift black gate entrance of the plot and burst out into Admiralty road
and started shooting indiscriminately. That was how they succeeded in forcing
their way into the banks.
- POLICE VICTIMS
Unfortunately, as soon as the hoodlums outside the banks
sited some policemen in a white coaster bus, they released volleys of bullets
towards their direction. The policemen were on escort duty with expatriates in
the bus when they ran into the scene. Three of the policemen were felled while
the expatriates were seated unruffled in the white coaster bus as the operation
lasted.
Not even their brief cases (quite a number of them) were
touched by the hoodlums. This triggered off another round of commotion as both
passers-by including other pedestrians and hawkers, took to their heels. A
little girl who sells fish in the area was also felled by hot leads of bullets
from the bandits’ weapons.
- ESCAPE ROUTE
While the bandits were busy packing huge sums of money into
bags, their colleagues were at alert outside the banks, busy releasing bullets
in all directions. After they had packed money to their satisfaction, they
escaped through the toll plaza where millions of cash were collected daily. But
they did not collect even a kobo from them.
- POLICE ARRIVES SCENE
Barely fifteen minutes after the bandits escaped through the
water way with their loot, a team of policemen arrived the scene. Police
sources said information about the attack came late to the command headquarters
in Ikeja which swiftly deployed men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, to
the scene. However, their counterparts at Maroko, which is the nearest to the
scene reportedly claimed they were not informed early.
- POLICE BOSS REACTS
Sources said the daylight operation which took place around
4.30pm rattled police authorities in the state. Based on this, a crack team of
Anti-robbery detectives were deployed to Lekki, Ajah, Badagry and Epe areas
with stern instructions to fish out perpetrators of the attack. So far, both
the anti -robbery team and Marine Police are combing the waterways with a view
to tracing their escape route.
It was reliably gathered that few hours after the incident,
the State Police boss, Kayode Aderanti, abandoned his other official
engagements and proceeded to the scene to personally access the situation.
Thereafter, he led a crack team of policemen later in the night to all the
black spots in and around the area where it was reliably learnt that
appreciable success was recorded after the arrest of suspected hoodlums at the
spots. The operation by the police, reports said, lasted till the wee hours of
the night.
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