<h1>Robbers Bomb Kogi Police Station, Kill Two</h1>

HEAVILY armed bandits yesterday stormed Kabba, the headquarters of Kabba Bunu Local Government Area of Kogi State, where they bombed the divisional police station, killing two police men. The branch of a bank located around the police station was also bombed but efforts to gain access to the bank vault failed.

According to eye witnesses, the bandits, numbering about 10, invaded the police station, disarmed the personnel and headed for the armoury where they carted away arms. They reportedly released suspects detained in the station before bombing it.


Thereafter, it was gathered that they invaded the nearby bank, shooting sporadically before throwing a dynamite to gain entrance into the banking hall.

The bandits were said to have fired several dynamites to the bank’s vault but they could not gain access into it before they left in annoyance.

The state police commissioner, Amana Abasankanga, who paid an on-the-spot assessment visit to the station, said immediately he was alerted of the incident, he mobilized his anti riot men stationed in Okene to rescue the Kabba police.

But on getting to Kabba, the CP said they met the bandits who opened fire on the rescue team and deflated the tyres of their armoured personnel carrier before they escaped

Although the CP could not say whether it was the Boko Haram sect that struck, he said the police were working on the theory that the attackers could be desperate armed robbers as he said that police preliminary investigations revealed that a large sum of money was deposited in the bank in the previous day for the payment of teachers’ and council workers’ salaries.

He said the bank had been raided by armed robbers more than two times in recent times even as he urged residents not to panic “as the long arm of the law will catch up with the bandits”.

The police boss refused to give the names of the victims but he identified their ranks as an inspector and a corporal.

The traditional ruler of the town, the Obaro of Kabba, Oba Michael Olobayo, who was on hand to receive the police commissioner, expressed shock over the dastardly operation and said the incident was tragic even as he urged his people to be vigilante.

According to one Corporal Olatunji Opeyemi, who managed to escape the attack with bullets wounds, the bandits came in three vehicles accompanied by a bike rider at about 1.30 a.m. and forcefully gained access into the police station.

Also speaking with newsmen, one of the security guards at the bank, who identified himself as Jimoh Ibrahim, confirmed that the bandits came in three vehicles and first of all bombed the police station before they went to bomb the bank.

Vanguard