The diligent police officers acting on a tip-off that a gang of 13 armed robbers were headed to Ajao Estate to rob an old generation bank, laid ambush for the robbers at the Abule-Egba area of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
As the robbers approached the police checkpoint in two vehicles; a Toyota Sienna with number plate AKD 54 AG and Nissan Sunny car with number plate BT 914 APP, they opened fire on the police, leading to a a gun duel that lasted over an hour.
The robbers fell victims to the superior firepower of the Police and seven of them sustained life threatening injuries, eventually leading to their death.
Police spokesperson, Ngozi Braide, said five AK 47 riffles, five double barrel cut-to-size and a total of 535 live cartridges were recovered at the end of the melee.
Also in a turn of events, three suspected members of the gang already positioned close to the bank, and waiting for the arrival of their colleagues reportedly overheard the encounter with policemen from a radio broadcast but could not ascertain if their colleagues were the robbers in question.
During interrogation, one of the arrested suspects disclosed the information to the operatives.
“When we were informed, we used the telephone number of one of the arrested suspects to contact their colleagues at Ajao, making him sound as if they were still on their way. They even told them they heard there was shoot-out at Abule-Egba and wanted to find out if it involved them”, sources said.
When the police operatives reportedly stormed Ajao area, the suspects who sensed danger, had fled the scene. They were, however, trailed to a hotel around the area, where one of them, a 48-year-old man whose identity was given simply given as Muftau, was arrested while his colleagues were said to have managed escape.
During interrogation, Muftau reportedly disclosed that his fleeing colleagues had a rocket launcher, three AK 47 riffles and a total of 600 cartridges in their vehicle.
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