‘Policemen were running’, Witnesses speak on Lekki bank robbery [VIDEO]

monjola sotubo

March 13, 2015 4:55 PM

The girl’s mother and other relatives were captured on video weeping over the loss of their daughter, who was hit by a stray bullet.

A bank robbery which took place in Lekki, Lagos yesterday, March 12, is confirmed to have claimed four lives, including that of a 15-year-old fish hawker.

The robbers, dressed in army uniform, arrived at a bank on Admiralty Way, near the Lekki-Ikoyi link bridge at about 5pm and shot sporadically into the air.

They also killed three policemen who were serving as security escorts and heading to the airport.

According to witnesses, the teenage girl was trying to cross the road when she was struck on the head by the bullet.

“She was shot on the head… so I believe she can’t survive it,” a witness at the scene told Pulse.

However witnesses also said that the girl’s body had been carried away by the police to an unknown hospital.

“They told us that we’ll still see the body, we haven’t seen the body. We haven’t seen the girl,” another witness said in Pidgin English.

“They said they’ve taken her to the hospital, they should show us which hospital they took her to, they didn’t tell us,” she added.

One bystander expressed disappointment that some policemen in the area had fled upon sighting the robbers.

“We don’t really have security in this country… Can you imagine policemen at the other side they were running… it’s not supposed to be like that,” he said.

A police officer who arrived at the scene after the robbers had departed also spoke on the incident.

“We just got the information that some group of hoodlums came through the Lagoon, attacked a commercial bank… Unfortunately… a group of policemen on escort duty to the airport ran into these hoodlums,” he said speaking of the three officers who had died.

“We lost some officers… but we’re on top of it and we just want to assure everybody that we’re on top of this situation and we’re going to get at them. We are going to pick them up,” he added.

The officer however said that he could not comment on how much had been taken from the bank as it was too soon to determine an actual figure.

monjola sotubo