How DPO, nine others were killed in Delta

The battle was fierce, no doubt, as hoodlums, for hours, took over the two sleepy communities, killing six policemen, a military officer and a woman.   The gun duel between the armed robbers and the policemen started at about 10am that fateful day. At Igbodo, a community along the Benin-Asaba high way where the suspected […]

The battle was fierce, no doubt, as hoodlums, for hours, took over the two sleepy communities, killing six policemen, a military officer and a woman.

 

The gun duel between the armed robbers and the policemen started at about 10am that fateful day.

At Igbodo, a community along the Benin-Asaba high way where the suspected armed robbers first struck, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Abraka Police station, Chief Superintendent of Police, Steve Chigbufue  and an Assistant Superintendent of Police, John Danladi, attached to Ogwashi-Uku Police Station and others were killed by the robbers.

Chigbufue, according to police sources, was leading others to Asaba, the state capital for an official assignment when they ran into the robbers operating. The sources said on sighting the police team, the armed robbers opened fire on the security men and instantly six of them were killed on the ever busy road. The police, however, shot dead five members of the gang in a counter-attack.

Sources said the robbery gang started their operation in the early hours. They robbed several motorists and disappeared only to resurface at about 2pm during which the police ran into them.

Weekly Trust learnt the police had to send for reinforcement from Asaba before succeeding in killing five of the suspected armed robbers in a shootout.

Sources told Weekly Trust that scores of bodies littered the expressway before they were removed.

After the killings at the expressway, however, the armed bandits,  moved  to Ibusa Oshinili North local government area after collecting two of their members at Koka junction in Asaba  where they robbed two banks.

A man simply identified as a pastor was killed by the robbers during a raid on a branch of an old generation bank after the robbers were said to have raided a branch of a new generation bank in the area.

An eyewitness said the robbers numbering eight arrived Ibusa town in a red Toyota Camry car and a bus and first raided the new generation bank before attacking the old generation bank in a commando style raid.

“In fact, this place was turned into a war zone of some sort as the robbers exchanged fire with policemen. The police blocked all the exit routes and confined the robbers within the town where the exchanges took place. We were picking bullets from the ground,” the witness said.

Two of the robbers were said to have been burnt by a mob that was said to have disarmed the hoodlums who were confused about their exit route from the town after robbing the two banks.

“It was also in my presence that one of the robbers was killed by the people. The suspect was in the midst of several people and was shooting into the air while looking for escape route. When he exhausted his bullets, the people rushed in and attacked him. They hit an iron rod on his head and he fell down before the people set him ablaze,” the witness narrated.

Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba, who was at Warri, where the First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan was on official when the robberies took place, said “the armed robbers invaded the state, operated in a manner we have not had before, took over the express way and attacked our men.”

The CP said among his men killed was SP John Danladi, a refined, disciplined and gallant   police officer, who was ordained Deacon at Tree of Life Church in Ogwashi-Uku by Prophet Reuben  Okotu two days earlier.

Late Danladi was said to have received numerous awards, particularly, from the police force for his gallantry.

Aduba told newsmen that the 35-year-old Stephen Odili, Ojade Sunday 26 and Princely Oba 32 were among the armed bandits who killed his men that day. He said four of the suspects were killed, while others escaped.

Aduba believed that what befell  “them was a poser before all of us, thence we are re-packaging a new security measures to confront the robbers as most of them are from outside the state, but we are on course.”

The CP  praised the youth and vigilantes of Ibusa/Ogwashi-Uku communities who assisted the police while the operation lasted,

One of the robbery suspected arrested, Odili told Weekly Trust that he was introduced into armed robbery by one Emeka. He was arrested at a compound in Ibusa as he attempted to escape.

According to the commissioner, 94 loaded magazines of AK47 riffles, three bullet proof vests belonging to security operatives, a rocket launcher, a rocket propelled grenade, 5ak47, one 9mm zastowa pistol and 11 rounds of live ammunition and3,550 rounds of 7.62 ammunitions were recovered from the robbers.