Two members of an armed robbery syndicate who invaded “FASTLINK’’ electronic and phone warehouse in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, were in the early hour of Wednesday, February 3, shot dead by the police.
The robbers engaged the operatives of the Ogun State Police Command in a gun duel.
A member of the group was however apprehended alive.
The attack on the robbers followed a distress call received by the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, Igbeba division, CSP Doga Najeem, from a local vigilante leader, that the warehouse situated in Oyingbo area of Ijebu-Ode had been invaded by dare devil armed robbers.
Upon the distress call, the DPO mobilised his patrol team in-conjunction with So-safe corps, and moved to the scene.
On sighting the policemen, the robbers engaged them in a gun battle for about an hour, at the end of which two members of the gang were shot dead and one arrested.
Others escaped in their standby vehicle with various degrees of gunshot injuries.
On interrogation, the arrested member of the armed robbery gang, who identified himself as 28 years old Isiaka Yakubu, an indigene of Yauri in Zamfara State, claimed that the group was made up of eight men.
He said they came from Lagos State where they had been hiding for some days before coming to Ijebu-Ode for the operation.
Recovered from them are: One locally made gun, one iron cutter, two cutlasses, one iron chisel, as well as phones and electrical material worth N6 million which they removed from the warehouse.
The Commissioner of Police, Edward A. Ajogun, who commended his men for their swift response to the distress call, ordered the immediate transfer of the case to the state criminal investigation and intelligence department for discreet investigation.
He also directed a massive hunt for the fleeing members of the gang with the view of bringing them to justice.
The CP while appealing to members of the public, especially hospitals, to report anybody seen with gunshot injury to the police, warned criminals to stop testing the will-power of the command.
He said the command was determined to decisively deal with all forms of criminality in the state.
