Man Shot By Robbers Laments Their Escape

Penultimate Wednesday, robbers in a Rambo-style display stormed a Guinness depot in Kubwa, killed two police inspectors on guard, shot a store keeper in the leg and carted away money running into millions.

The robbers numbering about six breezed into the vicinity and within a space of 10 minutes, accordingly to the store keeper, Mr. Okendele Titus, who spoke with LEADERSHIP from his hospital bed, they had accomplished their mission and disappeared into thin air.

Eyewitnesses who spoke with LEADERSHIP at Kubwa expressed that the robbers met the police officers in a store opposite their duty post and shot them point blank, killing them instantly.

While the officers were taken unawares, there was no opportunity for on lookers to make contact with the nearest police station or check point and so the robbers met with little or no resistance.

What however worries Titus is why in spite of the large number of police an army check points within Kubwa and on the expressway to Zuba and Suleja, not even one of the robbers was apprehended.

According to him this is an indication that the security operatives were not on top of their jobs. He averred that government could minimise robbery incidents through creation of more gainful employment.

“The government has to create more jobs opportunities in other to stop all these, that’s the first point. And security has to be serious with their work. Because I believe that in Kubwa if you see any junction from Kubwa to Zuba very junction has check point which is manned by the army or police.

Even within Kubwa, every junction has police or army, why did they not catch even one person? That means they are not serious with their work. But if the Nigerian government can create more job opportunity all those things will minimize”, he said.

Titus an NCE holder said he has been on his job for more than two years and had never encountered such a fate. He also disclosed that he did not have any premonition of the incident. According to him, he was gladly coming to work that fateful day not having any thing in mind.

“I was on my table busy working when I overheard a gunshot outside. When I stood up, I saw the two policemen on the ground, dead. I wanted to run but as I made the move they shot me in the leg so I had no option than to shout. I saw three men enter inside the depot; short, short people, they were not too tall and did not have much body.

The guy that shot me was a very slim, short guy with black cloth and wore black jacket. He held two guns, one pistol and one AK47. He’s also the one who packed the whole money inside the inner room.

While two entered inside the ware house this one entered inside the cashier office and packed all the money. Then two were outside shooting with one other inside the car waiting. I can’t remember the type of vehicle. They were six in number.

Asked if the offices were armed when the robbers met them in the store Titus said, “They were with their arms but these robbers came accidentally. Before they knew that they were under attack one was already killed. The other one wanted to react but they also killed him. T

hey were opposite the depot but I don’t really know what they were doing. The shop is opposite the ware house and if I sit in the warehouse I can see everything happening outside. So before I knew what was happening the only thing I saw, I saw somebody lying on the ground.

“It was too fast. The robbers came round 11am. They didn’t come in the night or evening. What happened is that the money we collected in the evening we keep it till the morning, then after the sales in the morning, we took everything to the bank in the afternoon. So the whole money we collected in the evening and the next day morning, they took it away but I can’t say the amount.

Titus, who told LEADERSHIP that the police have not been to the hospital to visit him since the incident, also pointed out that the robbers could not have been persons resident in Kubwa town. According to him, if they were from Kubwa they could have covered the faces in order to hide their identities.

He also disclosed that the hospital bill for his treatment was being footed by his employers but noted that he was not aware if he would be entitled to some compensation since his injuries were I the course of his job. He also said the robbers although experts in the use of guns going by the way they displayed could not have been people from the police, the military or the para-military.

“I don’t think the robbers were people from Kubwa because if it is people in Kubwa, maybe they would have covered their face but all of them, their faces were naked. None of them covered their faces.

“In my opinion, they are experts quite true but I can’t tell whether they were any of the military or paramilitary. But the very guy that shot me I don’t think he will be taken in any work like para-military or military. He’s too short.

“I can say this was an accident. you can’t say when it will happen it can come when you don’t know. When they shot me although I knew what was going on but everything was out of my memory.

I was blind in mind so I can’t tell what I experienced although since this thing happened I have been conscious and I know all the people who came here to see me. The police has not come since I was brought here.

“I don’t know whether my employers are going to compensate me but they have been taking care of my treatment” , Titus from Logo Local government area in Benue State said.