Elvis Omoregie,BENIN CITY
Edo State Command, Nigeria Police Force has confirmed that three armed robbers were killed in a foiled robbery attempt on two commercial banks in Igarra, on Thursday.
The men of underworld in their devilish manner stormed the town and attacked a police station where they killed one inspector of police and two civilians at the station as part of strategy to pilot their operation, before marching to the banks.
Briefing newsmen at the Command headquarters in Benin City, on Friday, Commissioner of Police, Johnson Babatunde Kokumo confirmed the killing of the three armed robbers as well as one policeman and two civilians in the town.
He hereby debunked rumour that twelve persons were killed during the attacked as widely reported across different media houses.
Kokumo explained that the timely response from the police denied the robbers opportunity to carry out their deadly acts, just as three of the robbers fell to the superiority of the gallant police officers during the exchange of gunfire at the banks.
CP Kokumo said: “The attack was at the Keystone bank, and not on the two banks. Though, Unity bank was adjacent to the other. The marauding armed robbers actually attacked the Keystone bank, but met a stiff resistance from the policemen attached to the two banks.
“They were able to give good account of themselves by overpowered the robbers. This led to the killing of three while others are at large. We are assuring the community of adequate security of lives and property in the town and it’s environment.
“The quick response from the police has given the community a sense of belonging that policemen are actually working. This to them is a lot of improvement on the activities of the police in their areas.
“Prior to that, criminals have always operating from outside Igarra axis, being a border town with Kogi State. It is known that these criminals were making incursions into the town from the outside, and on number of occasion, they usually meet it rough.
“With this incident, I believe that they will never want to make any further incursions into the town. And police will not relent in its efforts to arrest the fleeing robbers.”