Daring armed robbers on Thursday raided Skye bank branch and three other banks in Owo, Ondo State and carted away undisclosed sums of money.
It was also gathered that the robbers also killed eight persons while many others sustained injuries.
According to an eye witness, the robbers began their operation at about 5pm, with improvised explosives that shattered steel doors at the banks’ buildings.
They were said to have positioned themselves at strategic areas of the town, thus making it impossible for the police to confront them.
The armed robbers, who were reportedly dressed in military uniforms, invaded the town through Owo-Abuja expressway around 5.pm.
The robbers, about seven in number, arrived shortly after the banks had closed for the day. They killed some bank officials, among whom was a bank manager who refused to cooperate with them.
A source told journalists that the robbers met stiff resistance from residents of the town, who mounted roadblocks and barricades, and men of the Nigerian Army who came to confront them.
It was learnt that one of the robbers was captured alive and set ablaze by the irate mob before security operatives could save him.
However, a worker at the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, said 16 people with various degrees of injury were admitted in the emergency ward, while more than eight bodies had already been deposited in the morgue. – Agency report.
The State’s Police Public Relations Officer, Wole Ogodo, confirmed the development but was uncertain as to the number of casualties as available information were still sketchy. Agency report.
