20 Suspected Robbers Storm Four Streets, Hack Guard To Death

More than 20 suspected armed robbers on Wednesday stormed four streets at the Iju-Ishaga area of Lagos State, making away with money and hacking a local security guard to death. The robbers were said to have hacked the security guard to death after bullets failed to penetrate his body. The deceased is a member of Oodua Peoples Congress, who is a security guard in the community. The robbery was however not all successful as policemen from the Iju Police Station, led by the Divisional Police Officer, confronted and repelled the robbers. The confrontation led to the arrest of two of the suspected bandits. Other members of the gang were said to have fled through the swamp in the area. Recovered from them were two locally made guns, cartridges, charms, identity cards, ATM cards and a substance suspected to be Indian hemp. The Secretary of the Community Development Association, Alade Olowosokedile, Iju Ishaga, Evangelist Elija Umoh, said: “The robbers were about 20! They attacked the four streets that made up the community. The streets are; Nelson Cole, Iyabo Williams, Alafia and Hope. The guard, Mathew, was hacked to death with clubs and heavy stone at Alafia Street. We discovered that chose to kill him that way after bullets from the robbers’ guns could not penetrate his body.” Umoh further said that the robbers broke into virtually all the building in the area, scaling through the fences. They however allegedly did not succeed in removing any valuable due to the timely intervention of the police. He explained: “It all started around 2am. I received a call from my tenant that he was hearing noises in the area. He suspected armed robbers were operating. I raised the alarm and called my CDA Chairman. I also called the security operatives within the area. The Chief security of the area said they were up to 22 armed robbers. They moved from one building to the next. When they discovered that security men were all over the place, they started looking for an escape route.” Noting that it was unfortunate that Matthew lost his life in the process, Umoh said  this was not the first time robbers would be storming the community. He said: “It happened two years ago when we also lost a resident landlord in the process.” Applauding police effort in the operation, Umoh noted that the police always responded each time residents alerted them. He however urged police to increase the level of monitoring and patrol of the area.