POLICE, DRIVER WAS KILL IN PORT HARCOURT BY ROBBERS

A policeman and a driver were shot dead, on Monday afternoon, when armed robbers, who obviously came after a cash-bearing vehicle, struck in the Mile One area of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The incident, which occurred at about 3:30p.m, was suspected to be targeted at one of the new generation banks in the area, but the robbery did not eventually exceed the ill-fated vehicle carrying an unspecified amount of money.

The Port Harcourt Bureau Chief of Vanguard newspapers, George Onah, who managed to escape death by a slight chance, said the three-man gang of dare-devil armed robbers first ensured they killed the victims before going for the money they bore.

Onah, who incurred the unpleasant attention of the robbers because his car seemed to be in the way of their target said he  managed to escape the bullets that were aimed at him by lying on the ground. His car was, however, seriously damaged.

As at the time of filing this report, it could not be ascertained how much the hoodlums made away with, but it was gathered that after killing the mobile police escort and the driver of the Hilux van bearing the money, they went into the vehicle and picked two Ghana-must-go bags, believed to contain cash.

Narrating the scary episode, Onah said “I was just trying to drive out so that I could pack properly to go to the cybercafé. I put my laptop in the car and was looking at the side mirror where I saw three deadly looking young men as they shot the driver.

“They started attacking my car maybe they thought I was trying to block them from having access to the Hilux car which I suspected must have been from one of the foreign embassies.

“When they started shooting at my car, they also rained bullet on the nearby car parked by my side. They jumped into the Hilux and carried some bags of money out”, Onah said.

Efforts to get details from the police was unsuccessful as the spokesman of the Rivers Police command, Ben Ugwuegbulam (DSP), was unreachable.

The state’s Commissioner for police, Suleiman Abba, responded to a call by the media, confirming the incident and stating that he was waiting for further details.

It should be noted that the spot of Monday’s robbery is like just 150 metres away from the Mile One Divisional Police Station, one of the most fortified in the state, but it was gathered that the robbers robbed and killed unchallenged as the usual patrol teams around the area were out of sight while the attack went on.