The looting of police armouries which started about three weeks back when hoodlums hijacked the hitherto peaceful #EndSARS protest continued in Edo State on Monday night as some unknown gun men attacked a police station at Igueben, and carted away unspecified number of arms and ammunition. Controversy however trails whether or not fatalities were recorded on the side of the police, though authorities confirmed that one of the invaders was killed. While credible sources insisted that two policemen – an Inspector and a Corporal – died, even mentioning names, the state police public relations officer, PPRO Chidi Nwafor, who confirmed the attack on the police station, stated categorically that “No police was killed in the attack”. According to Nwafor, the two policemen who were wounded were receiving treatment at an undisclosed hospital.
Tell’s investigation revealed that the suspected armed robbers stormed the police station around 8.00 p.m. and blew their way in with a dynamite which ripped open the ceiling, shattered glass windows, while the door to the armoury was forcefully brought down giving them access to the large cache of arms and ammunition which were their main target. In an official reaction to the incident, the PPRO said “On November 9, 2020 at about 19.30hrs, hoodlums suspected to be armed robbers invaded the Police Station at Igueben. Immediately, the Police personnel mobilised to repel them.
“During gun duel, one of the suspected armed robbers was shot dead, two policemen were wounded and they were taken to the hospital. One motorcycle, suspected to belong to the robbers was confiscated by the police. No police was killed in the attack”.
Nwafor assured that the police were doing their best to weed out criminal elements in that axis of the state capital, and that normalcy had returned to the area.
The dastardly act was said to have provoked outrage in the community with youths taking to the streets in protest and calling on the government to probe the attack which they claimed was perpetrated by outsiders and not indigenes.
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