Egbetokun: Two killed, four arrested over Benue bank robbery

The police have killed two suspects and arrested four others in connection with the bank robbery that took place in Otukpo area of Benue state in October. 

Four police officers were killed when the robbers attacked four banks in the community.

Olukayode Egbetokun, inspector-general of police, spoke in Abuja on Monday during a meeting with strategic police managers.

“You will recall the deadly Otukpo bank robbery of October 23 during which the Otukpo divisional police officers (DPO) and many other innocent Nigerians lost their lives,” Egbetokun said.

“Huge sum of money was carted away from the three commercial banks that were robbed during the operation.”

Egbetokun said the unrelenting efforts of police personnel, acting on both human and technically-generated intelligence, eventually paid off.

He said the armed robbers were traced to their hideouts where two of them were neutralised and four others arrested.

Egbetokun said the four suspects are currently in the custody of the police, assisting the force in its investigation to track other fleeing members of the gang.

The IG said nine AK-47 riffles and 4,013 rounds of live ammunition were recovered from the suspects.

He said police operatives, during a covert operation carried out in Rivers and Katsina states on December 14 and 15, rescued 23 kidnap victims.

Egbetokun said the victims rescued included students of the Federal University, Dutsinma in Katsina, adding that two notorious bandits were killed during the operation.

He said the police have, in the last 10 weeks, recorded significant successes in reducing the crime rate across the country.

According to him, the feat was attained through a combination of efforts involving intelligence-led operations, community engagements and proactive policing.

He said police operatives rescued 134 kidnap victims, arrested 375 suspected kidnappers and 578 armed robbery suspects in various operations across the country.

The IG said 431 suspects were arrested for rape and other sexual-related offences; 724 arrested over murder/homicide cases and 2,343 apprehended for other criminal offences.

He said 433 of the suspects arrested over other criminal offences were suspected cultists.

Egbetokun said 419 firearms of various types and a total of 4,235 different calibre of ammunition were recovered from the suspects.