By Duke Onyeoma
Operatives of Imo Police Command on Saturday nabbed two men during a robbery attack at a good shop in Owerri.
The armed robbers stormed a gold shop known as Goldwise Wisdom Gold stores located at ikenegbu area of Owerri, the state capital.
An eyewitness disclosed that the heavily armed criminals operated in a white Hilux vehicle wore military uniforms.
The armed men were said to have moved into the shop and stole items worth millions of Naira and were on their way out before a policeman that accompanied an unidentified person to take his lunch at an eatery nearby suspected foul play and opened fire on them.
People closed their shops and scampered away when the five-man gang returned fire and started shooting indiscriminately.
According to the report, driver of the armed gang was shot by a policeman and he died instantly as his gang members quickly disembarked from the Hilux and started running while shooting in the air.
“The policeman suspected foul play and quickly opened fire on them. He killed the driver of the gang and his four other members jumped out and started shooting. Police reinforcement from the command headquarters quickly arrived. Two were caught while to others escaped”, an eyewitness stated.
A source said the golden items they stole were immediately recovered from them even as another eyewitness expressed gratitude to God that no innocent soul was killed in the incident.
He said “they were in army camouflage. As they stormed the plaza in a Hilux van, residents and traders around that vicinity thought they were police men or military men but to their utmost dismay, they were men of the underworld. As they were busy harvesting the gold from the shelves, a policeman attached to someone who came to buy one item or the other noticed that it was a robbery attack and fired at the driver and gunned him down, thereby dislodging the movement of the robbers. Therefore, they took to their heels by foot”, a source stated
Parading the dead suspect and the two others caught alive at the Command’s headquarters, the police spokesman in the state, Henry Okoye said that the state Commissioner of police, Muhammed Barde, was grateful to the operatives who foiled the attack and caught the suspects.
The Police spokesperson, Okoye disclosed the names of the suspects as Peter Gaura, 27, from Kogi State, whom he described as a dismissed solider and Promise Joshua, 25, from Delta State.
Joshua told newsmen that he works as a bouncer at a popular hotel newly opened in Owerri.
