Suleiman Isah
3 December 2011
Minna — A gang of 12 notorious armed robbers during the week robbed two commercial banks within the outskirt of Suleja some few metres from Dikko market along NNPC deport and carted away a whopping sum of N20million from the two banks.
Saturday Champion gathered from eye witnesses that the gang of armed robbers had arrived the premises of both Zenith and Keystone banks in a Toyota Hilux van wielding sophisticated weapons and started sporadic shooting on pedestrians who were forced to lay on the street to avoid the bullet of the armed robbers.
Our correspondent reports that the robbers had trailed a bullion van belonging to Zenith Bank Plc and decided to swoop on the van when they spotted insufficient security personnel within the premises of the bank.
“They carted away about N18m from Zenith Bank while the got N1.8m from Keystone Bank as well as molested a female banker with Zenith Bank”, the eye witness said.
A source who does not want his name on print told Saturday Champion that the robbers who were unperturbed during the operation took almost 30 minutes to dislodge both staffers and customers before they drove on their vehicle and headed towards Kaduna road even with the heavy road blocks mounted along the road by officers of the Joint Task Force JTF.
The State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Maishanu who confirmed the incident disclosed that, “a gang of 12 armed robbers attacked two banks and made away with N4.9m while two policemen and two civilians sustained injuries during the operation that lasted for about 30minutes”.
He also said “two pistols, four loaded and one unloaded cartridges and nine empty containers of used live ammunition were discovered after the robbery operation”.
The Commissioner who described the incident as very unfortunate explained that all the victims who were caught in the web of the armed robbery in the two banks have been taken to Suleja General Hospital and are responding to treatment.
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