Two policemen were feared killed, others injured while a huge cache of arms and ammunition were carted away by the criminals.
Hell was let
lose Monday night at Igueben, Edo state, when dare-devil gunmen suspected to be
armed robbers invaded the divisional police headquarters in the town.
The state
police command however said that no policeman was killed in the incident.
But sources
who spoke in condition of anonymity, gave the names of police officers who lost
their lives in the attack as Inspector Monday Asoata and Corporal Esangbedo
Ezekiel.
The sources
added that their bodies had already been deposited in an undisclosed morgue in
the area, while the injured policemen are currently receiving treatment.
Other sources
at Igueben who also spoke to journalists in Benin on phone, disclosed that the
hoodlums arrived at the police stations around 8 pm.
The sources
added that the hoodlums blew dynamite and shot sporadically to gain access to
the police station, went straight tot the armory where they stole all the arms
and ammunition they could lay their hands on.
Shortly after
the incident, residents of Igueben were said to have trooped to the streets in
protest.
The attack
came less than 24 hours after the state police commissioner, Johnson Babatunde
Kokumo, issued a seven-day ultimatum to those who looted arms and ammunition at
police stations during the #EndSARS protests in Benin, the state capital, to
return them.
Confirming
the incident to journalists on the phone, the state police command spokesman,
SP Chidi Nwabuzor, said normalcy has since returned to the station.
According to
him, “On November 9, 2020, at about 19.30hrs, hoodlums suspected to be armed
robbers, invaded the police station at Igueben. Immediately, the police
personnel mobilised to repel them.
“During gun
duel, one of the suspected armed robbers was shot dead, two policemen were
wounded and they were taken to the hospital.
“One
motorcycle, suspected to belonging to the robbers was confiscated by the
police. No policeman was killed in the attack.
“The police
are doing their best to weed out criminal elements in that axis of the state.
As I speak, normalcy has returned to that part of Edo.”
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