Edo police kill 4 robbers, arrest killers of 4 cops

Four armed robbers were yesterday morning shot dead in two separate encounters with policemen of the Edo State Police Command. Briefing journalists at the headquarters of the state police command in Benin, the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Foluso Adebanjo, said in the first encounter at the Benin Bypass on the Benin-Lagos Expressway, 20 armed robbers engaged the police in a shoot-out and in the process, one of the robbers was killed, while a policeman sustained gun injury on his leg.

He said the other armed robbers escaped with suspected bullet injuries.

"In the second encounter that occurred on the Benin-Auchi Road, three members of a robbery gang, who had laid siege on the road, were gunned down by policemen, who engaged the robbers in a shoot-out," the police boss said.

Besides, the Commissioner of Police announced the arrest of members of a robbery gang, who killed policemen at the Benin Bypass.

The four policemen, who were deployed from the Osun State Police Command for a special election duty in Anambra State, were said to have been stopped by the armed robbers, who reportedly blocked the road.

The policemen, unaware that the blockade was mounted by armed robbers, had stopped only to be attacked by the armed robbers.

During an interview with journalists, one of the arrested armed robbery suspects, Muhammadu, 29, though agreed to have taken part in robbery operation in Enugu State on three occasions, denied being part of the gang that killed the policemen. He said his share of the robbery proceeds were N5,000, N6,000 and N30,000, respectively.

He, however, confessed to have joined a new robbery gang in Aduwawa area of Benin city, adding, "I don't know who killed police (sic). We don't have real guns but carved guns which we use to block the road."

In all, 43 suspects were paraded for various offences ranging from armed robbery, unlawful possession of firearms and cannabis, cultism, conspiracy and fraud, car snatching, murder ad rape.

Among the suspects paraded was Obodeke, who was alleged to have impregnated his daughter twice and procured abortion pills to get rid of the pregnancies, while four other suspects were said to have conspired to defraud a man of N29,893,000 with an ATM card.