Earlyface

Soldiers, last night, seized Auchi inEdoState where robbers, Monday night, used dynamites to blast four banks.

At the end of the robbers’ raid, 15 people, including three soldiers, were shot dead while the robbers went away with N3.5 million.

The blood-letting was replayed inBornoStatewhere five policemen were killed and telecommunication masts in the state destroyed.



An ATM at GTBank and a police patrol van destroyed by the robbers

Medical Director ofAuchiCentralHospi tal, Dr. Jude Omoregie, confirmed that three dead soldiers were brought to the hospital, Monday night. The soldiers, said to have run into the robbers, were killed before they invaded the banks.

The civilians, however, died through stray bullets in different parts of Auchi. Among the four banks attacked, it was learnt that the robbers succeeded in gaining entrance into only one of them because some of the staff of the bank were still on duty. It was said that about N3.5 million was stolen by the robbers.

It was also learnt that the police put up a resistance which infuriated the robbers who went back to bomb a police station.

Robbers bomb police stations

The robbers, numbering about 50, according to eye witnesses, were said to have stormed the area in three Camry cars and a bus and immediately headed to the Auchi Divisional Police Headquarters and the Police Area Command in Auchi, where they blew up the buildings with dynamites and bombs.

Several vehicles including police patrol vans, Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC) within the Area Command and Auchi Division office were set ablaze. The robbers who were alleged to have come from a neighbouring state, Vanguard was told, might have been in the town for one week planning the attack.

Soldiers take over Auchi

Meanwhile, soldiers at the early hours of yesterday, took over the entire Auchi town, making it impossible for vehicles heading towardsAbujaand the South-East to ply the road. It took the intervention of the state government before the ever busy Auchi-Abuja road was opened.

Edo State Deputy Governor, Dr Pius Odubu; the state Director of the State Security Service and the Acting Commissioner of Police in the state, Hurdi Muhammad, visited Auchi yesterday, where the Otaru of Auchi, Alhaji Aliru Momoh, appealed to the Federal Government to beef up security in his domain.

Odubu who described the attack as shocking due to the damages recorded, stressed the need for the Federal Government to equip the police with sophisticated weapons to check the activities of robbers.