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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