Armed robbers stormed a bank in Federal University town of Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, yesterday, and leaving two people, including a policemen attached to the financial institution dead.
In the daylight operation which threw the town into pandemonium, the gunmen carted away undisclosed sum of money from the bank’s vault and also collected cash and other valuables from customers.
Many residents of the community were seen shedding tears, particularly over the death of the little girl, whose age was said to be five.
“The robbery started at about 3 pm and the robbers besieged the bank and operated for over 30 minutes. They came into the town in green camouflage uniform and shot sporadically into the air.
“A policeman was killed with a small girl sitting beside the bank. There are some shops behind the bank, so the policeman was sitting in front of the shop with a five-year-old girl.
“I think they targeted the policeman, unfortunately, the bullet also hit the small girl. Two of them died,” an official of the bank, who refused to disclose his name, said.
The spokesperson of the Ekiti State Police Command, Caleb Ikechukwu, said the robbers gained entrance to the bank using a phylum explosive.
“There was a robbery attack on the commercial institution in Oye-Ekiti. We are still investigating on that (number of casualties) as soon as I have confirmation, I will issue a statement in regards to the incident.
“The armed robbers were dressed in a green camouflage uniform. They gained entrance into the bank with the use of phylum explosive,” the police spokesperson said.
In September, a policeman was killed when armed robbers attacked a bank in Ise-Ekiti.
In the Ise-Ekiti incident, the robbers also operated for about 25 minutes, thus putting to question the response speed of the police to armed crime in the state.
