Police kill two highway robbers in Ogun

Two members of an armed robbery gang who were said to have specialised in robbing luxury buses along Ijebu Ode-Ore-Benin Expressway were shot dead on Thursday by men of the Ogun State Police command.

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The robbers had successfully blocked a Port Harcourt-bound bus and dispossessed the passengers of their money and other valuables before they were pursued by men of the anti-robbery squad attached to the Ogebere-Ijebu Divisional headquarters, Ijebu East Local Government Area.

When journalists visited the Police divisional headquarters at Ogbere, corpses of the two armed robbers were displayed in front of the police station.

Items recovered from the hoodlums were three pump action rifles, two locally made pistols, and a machete.

Other items displayed were recovered items the robbers had stolen from the passengers.

Many of the passengers who were already stranded were also seen waiting to identify their items and possibly recover them.

Also parked in front of the police station was a white 34-seater passenger bus belonging to Chisco Investment with number plate AAA 649 XN with a shattered windscreen and windows, apparently by gunshots from the robbers.

Speaking with journalists at the police station, one of the victims, Donatus Adie, said the robbery incident occurred at the J4 Junction in the Ogbere axis of the expressway, around 1.08am on Thursday.

He said the bus had departed from Jibowu in Lagos and was on its way to Port Harcourt before it ran into the robbers.

He said the robbers operated for more than two hours and later disappeared into the bush with passengers’ personal effects.

He explained that the robbers, armed with guns and other dangerous weapons, blocked the ill-fated luxury bus with another 18-seater bus before they started their operation.

He said, “As soon as they stopped us, one of the robbers immediately took over the bus after pushing the driver off and then drove the bus into the bush, where they took all our valuables.”

Adie said the distraught passengers were still in the bush when policemen, who he said might have been given a hint by passers-by, arrived at the scene and went after the robbers.

Another victim, Kunle Apanisile, said one of the robbers dealt him serious blows and snatched his wristwatch and a sum of N30,000.

The victim, however, recovered his wristwatch from one of the dead robbers at the police station,  adding that their attackers were three in number.

He commended the police for their prompt response and gallantry.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, who led journalists to Ogbere, said the police got information that a robbery incident was going on at J4 Junction in Ogbere and the Divisional Police Officer of Ogbere, Agunbiade Adeyinka, led his men to the scene.

He said on getting there, the robbers had fled into the bush and police traced them to their hideout, where two of the robbers were shot dead while the third escaped with a gunshot wound.

He appealed to hospitals around Ogbere to report any patient with a gunshot wound immediately to the police.

He said, “We will still go after the fleeing member of the gang and apprehend him.”

Oyeyemi, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, said a sum of N166, 000 was recovered from the robbers.