two second generation banks in 4th Avenue, Festac area of Lagos state
and carted away huge sums of money.
PHOTO: Slain mother and child.
During the operation which lasted hours, a two-year-old toddler,
Mmesoma Ndirika, and her mother, Jane, who were inside their apartment
in an adjoining building, were reportedly hit by stray bullets from
the bandits who were shooting sporadically in all directions.
Reports said both mother and child later died as a result of injuries
they sustained from the bullet. A commercial motorcyclist who was
also hit by stray bullets reportedly died later in an undisclosed
private hospital.
It took the Police more than one and half hours to respond.
Recoveries by the Police
However, police authorities said they were able to recover about N27
million and other rounds of arms and ammunition abandoned by the
bandits while fleeing from the scene. They could not give specific
figure of casualties.
How they struck
Reports said the bandits who were dressed in military camouflage
uniforms, attacked the banks after alighting from boats at a nearby
canal. They reportedly used dynamite to destroy the security entrance
gates after which they gained entry into the banks.
Eyewitness account said as soon as the dynamites exploded, the heavily
armed bandits started firing bullets in all directions inside the
first bank they entered.
Eyewitness
According to the witnesses, while some of them were inside one of the
banks, another group broke into another nearby bank, while others
took positions in front of the area, at the same time shooting
indiscriminately.
A commercial motorcyclist, popularly called Okada, who was close-by,
was hit by bullets and he was said to have collapsed later after
fleeing from the scene.
Another witness who was also inside one of the banks, told Vanguard:
"After the dynamite exploded, the bandits, who were dressed in army
camouflage, invaded the banks threatening to kill anybody who
attempted to confront them.
They broke into all the rooms inside the bank and dragged everybody
into the main banking hall. While doing that, they were at the same
time brutalising customers and hitting others with the butts of their
guns. They broke into the bank's vault easily and carted huge sums of
money away.
ATMs were not spared as they also looted all the money in the machine.
They operated simultaneously in the two banks, after which they
escaped through the same canal they entered the area. In fact, as
they were fleeing from the scene, they forced some butchers in a
nearby market to help them load their massive loot into the canoe
before escaping."
How mother and child died
Uju, one of the residents of Block 8, 4th Avenue, where the stray
bullet hit mother and child, told Vanguard: "While the shooting was
going on, every one laid on the floor in their respective apartments.
I was with Jane in her parlour while her child was inside the room.
Suddenly, the child started crying and the mother stood up to carry
her. As she was coming to the sitting room with the baby, a stray
bullet perforated the window, hit the baby in the chest and also got
the mother on the left side of her shoulder.
Immediately, she took the child back to the room and started shouting
for help. Nobody came to her rescue because people were running
helter skelter for dear life."
However, when the dust settled, a neighbour, identified as Irabor
Sunday, reportedly rushed them to Mother and Child Hospital at the
First Gate in Festac where they were confirmed dead. The baby was,
thereafter, taken back to the house while her mother was rushed to
Lord's Chosen Church where a prayer session was organised for her
revival. Vanguard gathered that at 3pm, her corpse was taken to
Igando General Hospital mortuary where she worked as a nurse.
Conflicting reports
There were conflicting accounts of police response during the
operation which created tension in Festac town. While some witnesses
said policemen who claimed they came from Ikeja, Oshodi, RRS arrived
almost one hour after the bandits had fled from the scene, the police
said they confronted the bandits and during a fierce battle that raged
for several minutes, the robbers fled abandoning some of their loots
and weapons.
Witnesses also insisted that even the policemen that arrived after the
incident were openly blaming their colleagues at Festac Division for
not informing them about the attack on time.
According to the witnesses, the huge crowd that gathered at the scene
also booed the policemen for coming after the operation.
Police statement
Giving a vivid account of the incident, the Area Commander, Festac and
former Force spokesman, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Frank Mba
said: "Today, the 13th of October, 2015, at about 8:25 am, the
command received information of sporadic shootings going on somewhere
around 4th Avenue, Festac town, Lagos. The joint team of policemen
at Area E headquarters, Festac Division, promptly responded to the
crime and on arrival at the scene, the policemen engaged the gang of
robbers numbering well over 40, all dressed in military camouflage
and armed to the teeth in a gun battle.
"We engaged them in a fierce gun battle that lasted several minutes.
Not withstanding the clear numerical disadvantage of the police at the
beginning of this operation, the hot exchange of fire between the
policemen and the robbers who incidentally, had divided themselves
into two and were simultaneously robbing two banks, forced the robbers
to immediately end their operations. They, consequently, abandoned
their operation and also abandoned the sum of N27 million. As they
were fleeing, they left a total of 240 AK47 live ammunition, and left
the scene with money stolen from the bank. The money was later
recovered by the policemen and taken to another branch of the robbed
bank around 2nd Avenue, for deposit.
"The CP and other police stations around Ikeja were immediately
informed of the operation but my men were sent earlier to see what was
happening already. The CP, Fatai Owoseni, while regretting this
incident, vowed to do everything humanly and operationally possible
to make sure that the perpetrators of this crime are rounded up within
the shortest possible time and brought to book.
"It should be noted that within the two banks, nobody died. One
person sustained a minor injury in one of the banks and the person is
adequately responding to treatment. On our part and that of the law
enforcement agency, no injury, no death recorded. We heard about the
two-year-old child and her mother who were hit by stray bullets. We
are working on that. We are trying to liaise with the police to
currently locate the girl and her mother and make sure that they are
taken care of. A massive operation is currently going on and if there
are other pieces of information that are not available now, we would
make sure that we alert the press too.
"Preliminary information shows that they came in through the waterways
and they equally exited through the waterways, because there is a
canal very close to the area where the robbery occurred. The Marine
Police have been involved in tackling the activities of hoodlums in
waterways and their operations spread from Badagry to Epe to Lagos
Island, Oshodi to Ikorodu and every water side area. But, you must
equally understand that if the waters are not deep enough, we would
not carry out such operations."
-Vanguard
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