Nigeria map indicating Edo State
By Ozioruva Aliu, Benin-City
As armed robbers continue their prowl in Benin City with policemen yet to return to the streets, a nursing mother and persons believed to be family members were yesterday morning robbed of their Toyota car at the popular 3rd Junction by Murtala Muhammed Way while onlookers stayed aside recording the short drama.
An eye witness said the gang of robbers swooped on the car and dragged the occupants out including an elderly person carrying a new born baby and an elderly woman said to be the mother of the nursing mother.
There have been increased cases of robberies and violent crime across the state since policemen abandoned the streets as a result of the violent dimension the EndSARS protest assumed that led to the burning and destruction of 10 police stations in the state capital.
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A member of the gang was said to have pushed off the nursing mother, who went on her knees, pleading that she just put to bed.
The eye witness said: “It was like a film to us, we just saw some boys stopped the car and forced the occupants out. The elderly man was carrying a baby while there was also an old woman who is the mother of the lady and the boys took the car drove away through MM way”
It would be recalled that a mob on Tuesday lynched two suspected armed robbers and set them ablaze for alleged robbery.
The two suspected robbers were apprehended near Okah Market, the road by Ighodefeyi along Sokponba Road where they were beaten with clubs and set ablaze by the youths believed to be from the area.
Also on Tuesday, a suspected armed robber was almost mobbed when he went into the banking hall of a new generation bank along Sapele Road and took two bales of N200,000 behaving like a staff of the bank. He was sighted by a woman customer who later raised an alarm and the man was apprehended.
Two knives were recovered from him and he was rescued by the bank security and later taken to the Edo State Police Command.
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A Point of Sale (PoS) operator was allegedly shot by gunmen when she resisted them as they wanted to forcefully collect cash from her.
A Toyota Camry car was reportedly snatched at gunpoint along Mission Road on Sunday around 5 pm while another car was snatched by Uwasota in Ugbowo the same day.
Obaseki on Monday appealed to the police to go back to their bases just as he promised to rebuild the destroyed police stations, pay the medical bills of personnel injured and purchase of patrol vehicles for the Force.
