Lekki robbery: How father of seven, others died

Six persons including three mobile policemen were killed and
several others seriously injured during the incident which
happened on Lekki-Ikoyi Link bridge when the rampaging
armed robbers attacked a new generation bank.

Inspector Bethel, indigene of Kwale in Delta State and father
of seven, two other policemen identified as Sergeant George,
an Urhobo also from Delta State and Corporal Ikechukwu, a
Benin man from Edo State were the policemen who ran into
the robbery operation..

Security sources told Sunday Sun that the three policemen,
contrary to earlier reports, were on the escort of some
expatriates from Victoria Island to the international airport
in Ikeja when they ran into the bandits who had stormed the
bank for robbery operation.

Sunday Sun reliably gathered that the escort team decided to
follow the Lekki-Ikoyi link bridge because of the usual heavy
traffic on Ozumba Mbadiwe way with the lead driver who
carried the foreigners on a Coaster bus leading the way.

The team, it was learnt, ran into two robbers who were in
army camouflage uniform. They were brandishing a
submachine gun, which a source said uses ten magazines and
an AK47 rifle which uses double magazines.

The driver who had no inkling of the danger lurking around
was said to have continued with the journey without taking
any precautions.

“When the entourage got to the second army check point,
which was around the FCMB bank being robbed at the time,
there were many men in camouflage on standby as if waiting
for someone.

“They allowed the Coaster bus to pass but immediately
opened fire on the right side of the Hilux Van conveying the
police inspector, a Sergeant and a Corporal. The Police
inspector who was the leader of the escort and the corporal
who sat directly behind him were hit by bullets and died
instantly.

“Then the first two men in camouflage left behind began to
shoot at the Hilux Van. The driver who is a civilian stopped
the vehicle, switched off the engine, got down of the truck,
raised his hands and ran for his dear life. The Sergeant on
the other hand realizing he had been over powered, got
down from the truck without his ammunition with his hands
raised in the air and attempted to run away from the vehicle.
But the robbers opened rapid fire on him till they were sure
he was dead,” the source revealed.

Sunday Sun further learnt that the Coaster bus driver who
saw another check point ahead of him was quick to realize
that the area was too hostile and decided to slow down.

“One of the robbers fired at the bus but at that point, two
things happened simultaneously. The driver of the Coaster
bus stopped while a girl selling smoked fish who was running
for her life was hit by a bullet in her forehead which came
out through the back and damaged the right side of her head.
She fell down in front of the Coaster bus and died instantly.
Another civilian was hit by a stray bullet.

Meanwhile, the robbery inside the bank was said they have
been carried out quickly without any resistance.

“People didn’t know of it because they felt the men in army
camouflage were there to secure the area.