BENIN CITY — THE Manager, Accountant and two other top management staff of a branch of one first generation bank in Edo State have been arrested by the police in the state in connection with an alleged N1.4 million robbery in the bank.
The manager was said to have reported to the police after the alleged incident that armed robbers came to the bank incognito and stole N1.4 million but the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Paul Ochonu suspected that something was fishy when he was told that the three policemen who were on duty at the bank were not aware of the incident and that no shot was fired by the hoodlums.
Vanguard learnt that the Commissioner alerted the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun of his preliminary findings and the police chief authorized the arrest of the top bank officials.
It was also learnt that operations of the bank was temporarily halted for two days as the police quizzed the big shots and combed its books and that one of the branches of the bank in the state was reportedly robbed in a similar fashion while the manager in question was in charge of the branch.
The police Commissioner confirmed the arrest of the top bank officials when contacted by Vanguard. He said that “the manner the manager reported the incident gave me reasons to suspect because there were up to three police guards at the branch that day and the manager did not immediately alert them. There was no gun shot, nobody was slapped, nobody was injured and they did not raise alarm while the supposed robbers were there.
“I also could not comprehend how robbers could come into a bank and operate in that way without the police guards and the bank security men observing anything strange. We had to bring them from the branch to the State Criminal Investigation Department for further interrogation”, he said.
The Edo State police boss also confirmed that the police have information to the effect that the same manager before he was redeployed to his present branch had a similar incident at another branch of the bank where robbers allegedly came in and stole money without any trace.
He, however, said that the bank officials have been released on bail while investigations by the police were on.
