Police arrest 5 bank staffers, 6 others for alleged robbery

Posted by admin Headlines Friday, May 25th, 2012

By:

CHRISTOPHER OJI

Date:

Thu, 05/24/2012 – 14:01

Police operatives in Lagos have arrested eleven armed robbery suspects including five staffers of a new generation bank (name withheld) for allegedly trying to rob the bank. Among the suspects is a senior marketing executive of the bank’s branch in Gbagada, a suburb of Lagos and five others are being interrogated by detectives at the State’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), GRA, Ikeja.

The gang had perfected plan to rob the bank of the sum of N120 million being expected from a bank customer and were already in the bank premises to execute their plans when the police swooped on them.

A dependable police source told Daily Sun that the senior marketing executive, who is fingered as one of the masterminds of the robbery had collaborated with two internal security personnel of the bank and two other staffers to hatch their plan. The bankers were said to have invited one Sadiq, described by the police to be a notorious armed robber in the state, who in turn invited six members of his gang. The gang was said to have procured guns in Lagos and ordered for more from Benin City in Edo State.

The bubble burst when the police got information of the plan to raid the bank. They eventually stormed the bank premises in plain clothes on the day the robbery was to take place. One of the suspects, a staffer of the bank (names withheld) had told police that their weapons included two pistols already concealed in a computer CPU, which was whisked inside the bank by one of the internal security men.

The robbers who pretended to be customers of the bank had dressed gorgeously in their suits, while Sadiq wore a kaftan, but they did not know that plain-clothes policemen led by a superintendent of police had cordoned off the area, while some other policemen were in the banking hall. According to the police source, the detectives rounded them up and whisked them to the state police headquarters in GRA, Ikeja.

The police source said one of the robbers confessed that they had ordered for more arms and ammunition from their syndicate in Benin, to be able to withstand any resistance from the police during their operation.

The suspect further confessed that the marketing executive of the bank gave them money for the procurement of the arms and ammunition. The police source hinted that Sadiq also confessed that the gang had practiced severally how to carry out the operation.

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Umar Manko who confirmed the arrest said, the police were investigating the matter with a view to ensuring that all suspects needed to be arrested were actually brought to book.

The police boss confirmed that they had arrested 11 suspects including senior staff of the bank, adding that SARS had been directed to carry on with the investigation.

-Sunwp_posts