Three armed robbers, policeman killed as security forces foil Abuja bank robbery

Three armed robbers and a policeman were killed in an attempted bank robbery incident in Abuja on Thursday.

The target of the attack was a First Bank Plc branch and the headquarters of a police division in the Abaji Area Council.

A statement by the Police Public Relations Officer for the Federal Capital Territory Command, SP Josephine Adeh, said the police divisional headquarters and the bank were attacked simultaneously by 15 armed robbers.

She added that the attack was repulsed successfully by the Federal Capital Territory Police Command officers and the military.

According to her, three of the armed robbers were killed in the gun battle that ensured. Three of them were arrested and taken into custody.

A policeman who was hit by bullets and taken to hospital later died, the spokesperson added.

Part of the statement read, “In swift response to an armed robbery incident at First Bank Plc in Abaji on June 13, 2024, at about 5 pm, the FCT police, led by the commissioner of police, CP Benneth Igweh, himself, in a combined operation with the military, mobilised to scene and repelled the attack simultaneously carried out on both Abaji Divisional Police headquarters and First Bank Plc in Abaji by a group of 15 armed men who attacked with dynamites in attempt to rob the bank.

“The security forces engaged the armed robbers in an intense gun duel, forcing them to scamper to safety with various degrees of bullet wounds, as the security forces succeeded in apprehending three suspects, namely, Usman (surname yet unknown), who was reported to be the gang leader, Nuhu Musa, 41 ‘m’ of Kogi State; and Muhammed Aminu, 25 ‘m’ of Abaji, with grave degrees of bullet injuries, while a yet-to-be-identified suspect was set ablaze by an irate mob at the scene after being neutralised by the security forces.

“While a search operation is ongoing to apprehend fleeing suspects with bullet injuries, the commissioner of police FCT lauds the effectiveness of the combined operation and reaffirms the command’s unflinching commitment to ensuring that FCT remains inhabitable for criminals, noting that the safety of the residents of FCT is non-negotiable.”