BENIN CITY—EIGHT policemen in Edo State including an Inspector, Sergeant and Corporal were killed Monday night in Benin by a gang of six armed robbers, in what was suspected to be reprisal attacks on two police patrol teams between 8.00 p.m., Monday, and early hours of yesterday. They went away with arms and ammunition of some of the slain cops.
The police in the state said yesterday that it was a “black night” for them as the suspected robbers who wore police bullet-proof vests did not give the policemen any chance to escape in the four-hour encounter. An unspecified number of policemen were also injured, while at Ekpoma, yesterday afternoon, a businessman was reportedly shot dead by bandits.
The state police spokesman, Mr. Fatai Kinyomi, who confirmed the killing of the eight policemen said the police had launched a manhunt for the bandits, pointing out that there was no hiding place for them. The bandits were said to be protesting the arrest and killing of some of their colleagues in recent weeks by the police. They complained that some of their men were killed without trial by the police.
Mr. Kinyomi said that it was an organised attack and the police could not rule out a reprisal attack because the command had killed a lot of robbers in recent times in its bid to rid the state of criminals. He, however, said that whatever vengeance the robbers sought to achieve by their action, they went too far.
Vanguard learnt that the robbers ambushed men of the Ugbowo Police Division in Benin who were on patrol at about 8.00 p.m. and engaged them in a shoot-out, killing three on the spot while the fourth died at the hospital where he was rushed to for medical attention. The Divisional Police Officer for Ugbowo, Mr. Akan Ezima, who led his men on the ill-fated patrol was said to have returned fire, but they escaped with one of them injured. The police spokesman said one of the policemen, Corporal Vincent Ogedengbe, who was equally injured by the bandits put a valiant struggle as he shot one of the robbers.
While the police Control Room at the headquarters sent out an alarm to all the divisions, the dare-devil robbers targeted another patrol team from the Ikpoba Hill Division and in a similar pattern, after double-crossing their vehicle, opened fire on the four policemen in the vehicle. The four of them died.
Mr. Kinyomi told Vanguard that the policemen were caught unawares by the bandit as they thought that they were real policemen with the police bullet-proof vests they were wearing. He said the bandits who operated with AK-47 rifles did not snatch arms and ammunition from the Ugbowo policemen as there was no time to do that following the exchange of gunfire but he was not forthcoming on what happened to the weapons of the men from the Ikpoba Hill Division whom he said were about to disengage for the day when the robbers closed in on them. “What made it dicey for the policemen was that the robbers were dressed in bullet-proof vests with police inscription on it,” he added.
It was learnt that the hoodlums who operated in a jeep car overtook an unmarked vehicle which was being used by men of the Ugbowo Police Division and forced it to a stop and opened fire before the policemen could alight from the vehicle.
It was the DPO and one other policeman who had disembarked shortly before the incident to mop up patrol in other parts of the division that repelled the attack of the bandits. The men of the Ikpoba Hill Division did not have such an opportunity as the four in the vehicle were shot dead.
The scenes of both attacks were like battle fields with blood splashed all over. The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Paul Ochonu, was visibly angry yesterday morning as he inspected the scenes and the corpses of his men. He immediately deployed detectives out in search of the criminals and was said to have briefed the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun, on the development. The Inspector-General on his part ordered that the bandits be fetched out wherever they have run to.
Mr. Kinyomi admitted that the robbers used AK-47 rifles and that the police picked up empty shells at the scenes of the incident. One of the vehicles suspected to have been snatched by the bandits and used in the operation with number plate, AQ 272 USL was abandoned after the operation. It is now with the police.
