In a dramatic turn of events in Abaji, a community in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), angry residents set the corpse of a suspected armed robber ablaze on Thursday following a violent bank robbery that resulted in the death of a police officer.
The robbers, who launched their attack around 5:30 PM, began by targeting the local police station on Toto Road. According to a police officer who spoke to the press, the robbers arrived in two unmarked vehicles and immediately opened fire on the station.
“In fact, it is God that saved me because when the robbers alighted from the vehicle, they started shooting into the police station. While I managed to escape, an inspector who had earlier escaped later turned back because they had shot him in the chest,” the officer recounted.
The inspector, identified only as Abila, succumbed to his injuries.
Following the assault on the police station, the robbers proceeded to the nearby FirstBank branch, indiscriminately firing their weapons. A bank employee, who requested anonymity, revealed that although the robbers were unable to access the bank’s vault, they did manage to steal some cash from the counter. They also shot a security guard who had sought refuge in the bank’s restroom.
The situation escalated as a combined force of police, soldiers, vigilantes, and local hunters swiftly responded to the scene, engaging the robbers in a fierce gun battle. Two of the robbers were killed in the exchange.
In a display of public outrage, a mob seized one of the robbers’ corpses and set it on fire.
FCT Police Commissioner CP Benneth Igweh, who arrived at the scene with other officers, confirmed the deaths of the two robbers and announced that an anti-robbery squad, along with hunters, had been deployed to track down the remaining fugitives. He praised the coordinated efforts of the security teams for thwarting the robbery attempt and expressed his condolences to the family of the fallen inspector.
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