Tears as police honour
2 cops killed by robbers
From Emmanuel Adeyemi, Lokoja
Thursday, May
1 , 2008
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IGP, Okiro
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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Kogi State police recently organised a ceremonial burial
parade to honour two gallant officers, felled by the robbers’
bullets.
Bandits, who attempted to rob two old generation banks in
the area, killed the two cops.
The robbers, numbering about eight, were said to have sneaked
into the town in the early hours of that fateful day, in three
different cars, which they wanted to use to cart away millions
of naira. But a team of anti-robbery policemen led by the
Divisional Police Officer(DPO), Idah police station, Mr. Abdulkareem
Yusuf, confronted them.
After an exchange of gun fire, between the cops and the men
of the underworld, who had three female teenagers among them,
the bandits were stopped from gaining entry into the vaults
of the two banks. The leader of the gang, who wore military
uniform, was killed by the police.
Sensing that they could no longer withstand the police, the
other robbers abandoned over N600,000 already collected from
bank customers and one of their cars and fled. They killed
two of the policemen in the gun duel.
At the burial ceremony of the two cops, the DPO told Daily
Sun that one of the victims, Inspector Benjamin Agene,
wouldn’t have been killed if he was armed when the robbers
invaded the place. He said the victim was in the bank premises
at the time of the robbery and was the first to be shot even
before the arrival of other policemen.
Ironically, Agene, 42, a native of Benue State, who was recently
posted to Idah from Onitsha, was said to have been told, a
few days back, by his daughter, that she had a dream where
he was killed.
According to a family source, the daughter was so frightened
about the dream that she immediately called her father on
phone to confirm that he was alive. The father’s response
was said to be, “I am. the one talking, I am not dead”.
But few days after, the daughter’s dream came true.
Another victim, Corporal Abdulkareem Kadiri, 40, from Etsako
central, Edo State, was said to have been redeployed from
where he worked as an orderly to the Rector of Federal Polytechnic,
Idah to guard one of the banks.
Kadiri’s uncle, Alhaji Shaibu Oguta, who spoke to Daily
Sun, said as a Muslim, he saw Kadiri’s death
as an act of God, but appealed to the police authorities to
award scholarship to the two children he left behind. Mr.
Emma Idoko, a relative to Inspector Agene, described his death
as a blow to the entire family. He described him as the bread
winner of the family and as someone who loved his children.
In his speech on the occasion, the Kogi State Police Commissioner,
Mr. Ibezimakor Aghanya, who wept profusely over the loss of
the cops, commended them for their exemplary courage and display
of gallantry.
He said he was in deep grief over the loss of the cops, adding
that they did not die in vain.
Ibezimakor said he would recommend the two cops for posthumous
promotion and personally follow up the payment of their entitlements.
While commending the men and officers of Idah police division
for their gallantry, Aghanya told them not to be deterred
by the death of their colleagues, but to always be alive to
their responsibilities.
He vowed that the fleeing robbers would be arrested by a crack
team of detectives.
The police boss also advised members of the public, especially
bank customers, to always lie face down whenever robbers are
operating in the bank, adding that the three civilians who
died during the robbery incident were victims of stray bullets.
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