Angry Abuja residents burn robber’s corpse after policeman’s death

Some residents of Abaji area council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) set the corpse of a suspected armed robber ablaze, on Thursday.

The robbers invaded a bank in the town around 5:30pm,

A police officer told Daily Trust that the robbers first attacked the police station along Toto road where an inspector simply identified as Abila was shot dead.

He said the robbers, who alighted from two unmarked vehicles, started firing into the police station.

“In fact, it is God that saved me because when the robbers alighted from the vehicle, they started shooting into the police station. While I managed to escaped, an inspector who had earlier escaped later turned back because they had shot him on the chest,” he said.

Our reporter learnt that some members of the gang proceeded to the FirstBank branch located at the roundabout and started shooting sporadically.

One of the staff of the bank who spoke with our reporter on condition of anonymity, said the robbers could not succeed in accessing in the strong room where the bulk monies were kept but made away with some cash at the counter.

He said the robbers first shot a guard who ran into the toilet of the bank security house, before they walked into the bank.

Daily Trust gathered that a combined team of police, soldiers, vigilante and hunters quickly mobilized to the scene and engaged the robbers in a fierce gun battle, which led to killing of two among them.

An angry mob seized one of the corpses and set it ablaze.

Meanwhile, the FCT police commissioner, CP Benneth Igweh, who later arrived at the scene in company of police officers, confirmed that two of the robbers were shot dead during exchange of gunfire with security operatives.

He said police anti-robbery squad and hunters had been deployed in the bush to trace the fleeing robbers, even as he commended the effort of the combined team of security agents for foiling the attack.

CP Igweh, however, commiserated the family of the deceased inspector.