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JANUARY 29, 2007 VOL. 20. NO 16

Banking on Robbery

**Robbers**

Banking communities in Benin city, Edo State, turn into an operational base for robbery activities
By Walid Ogunseri, Benin City
ear has continued to grip residents and the banking community in Benin City over the spate of incessant commando - like attacks on banks in the city.
The Source's investigation reveals that since December 2005, when men of the Anti-robbery squad attached to Area Command, Benin dismantled the killer gang that made Edo State a killing field of sorts, the police in Benin, the Edo State capital, which houses over 50 branches of financial institutions have received vicious attacks from men of the underworld.
In these robbery incidents, the robbers, according to a very reliable source, were always in the region of 30 to 40 persons and are usually armed to the teeth. Those living close to the robbery scenes told the The Source that the hoodlums carried out their nefarious activities, armed with generators and welding machines that enable them to open banks vaults, while they use modern and sophisticated firearms to scare people and the police away.
The latest shocker received by the banking community in Benin city from men of the underworld was the Ikpoba Slope branch of Oceanic Bank which was attacked in the early hours of Wednesday, December 13, in a desperate but failed attempt to cart away money from the bank’s vault.
Attempts on the Oceanic bank, the second last year, came exactly four months after a similar unsuccessful attempt was made on the First Bank of Nigeria Plc branch located at the busy Ring Road on August 7, 2006. Afribank Plc situated opposite Oceanic Bank had also been caught in the web of the robbery attack and its own case was said to have lost a safe containing an undisclosed amount of money.
Earlier, in March this year, the United Bank for Africa (UBA) branch along Akpakpava Road in Benin was attacked in a similar commando- style. Eye-witnesses told The Source that the dare-devil robbers usually arrive their target banks in three or four Toyota Haice buses at about 1a.m. and commenced sporadic shootings which in all incidents lasted till about 4a.m. After each ‘invasion’ it was common to see bullet holes dotting the walls of the banks, while window glasses are usually shattered, even as standby generators and transformers are often rendered inactive by bullet impact that penetrate the engines.
So far, one live was lost in the Standard Trust Bank robbery, while three policemen also lost their lives at the First Bank incident.
Although no life was lost in the latest encounter at Afribank and Oceanic Banks Plc, but the policemen on guard duty were injured, while the cost of destruction of property is put at several millions of naira.
The Source’s visit to the banks at Ring Road, which include First Bank Plc, Unity Bank, and Union Bank by Forestry Road and Akpakpava Road, , which have banks like the Central Bank of Nigeria, Diamond, UBA, Zenith, PHB, Equatorial Trust Bank, WEMA, Intercontinental, Skye, Access, GTB, Afribank, and Oceanic, at Mission Road; Equatorial Trust Bank, Intercontinental Trust Bank and Unity Bank, First Bank, and Union at Sapele Road, Zenith Bank, Oceanic, GTB, Skye Bank, revealed a bustling business situation as usual, as hundreds of customers and securitymen on mufti and mobile policemen milled around the banks, ostensibly to transact their normal financial business with the bank and to ensure safety and security of the bank and the customers.
A manager in one of the new generation banks at Akpakpava, who, however, did not want his name mentioned, appealed to the government to expedite action on the police reform as the banking sector, he said, has paid its share of the police equipment fund.
Meanwhile, the police in Benin have commenced full investigations into the robbery attack on Afribank and Oceanic, along Ikpoba Slope.
Confirming this position, the Edo State Police Commissioner, Bala Hassan, disclosed that some of his men were injured in the gun battle at the Oceanic bank incident. He assured that the police would not relent in fishing out the culprits.
Incidentally, the first robbery operation to welcome the newly posted Commissioner of Police was the First Bank robbery. The commissioner told the The Source that on the evil night, the usual silence of the wee hours of the night was shattered by the sporadic gunshot and explosion of dynamites, even as the walls were riddled with bullets.
At the end of gun duel with the Mobile Police officers and men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and bank officials, damages he said, were done to vehicles parked at the bank premises and those belonging to men of SARS which were also riddled with bullets. Three police officers, he added, were shot dead during the crossfire, while some policemen managed to escape with various injuries.
In a swift response, aimed at ensuring that the state capital and banking community are crime- free, the officer in-charge of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Edo State Police Command, John E. Achian, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, has ordered all officers and men of the SCID to intensify efforts in curbing crime, especially bank robbery in the state. In no distant time, he said, the State Police headquarters was agog with celebration following the re-arrest of a wanted mobile police officer, for his involvement in some bank robberies.
The suspect, Police Constable Matthew Matto, formerly attached to Police Mobile Force (MOPOL 5, Benin) was on the list of wanted armed robbers for his alleged involvement in several robberies across the country.
The suspect was re-arrested at a check point by a team of policemen having earlier been arrested in Abuja. Luck ran out on him and his group due to their inability to conceal their identities.
The suspect had escaped from the police while going for an enquiry in Kaduna State. The senior officers that booked him out on the enquiry were remanded in police cell at the Force Headquarters Abuja, on the orders of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Sunday Ehindero. He, however, was caught when he ran into a police check-point at Auchi, Edo State.
He had trickily approached one of the mobile police officers on duty demanding for police escort. The unsuspecting policeman relayed Matto’s request to his team leader who insisted on having a chat with him. On sighting him from a distance, the police team leader quickly identified Matto and immediately shot him on the leg so as to incapacitate him; he was later arrested and taken to the Area Commander’s office in Auchi.
A mild drama occurred at the Auchi Area Command when the commander in-charge of Mopol 5 Benin, Paul Ibegbu, a Superintendent of Police (SP), in company of the officer-in-charge of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Chime went with a team of mobile policemen and men of SARS to Auchi on the order of the State Police Commissioner to bring the arrested suspect to the state CID, Benin. The Mopol 5 commander pleaded to be handcuffed together with Matto, to prevent another escape. The Source gathered that the mopol commander had earlier been queried and subsequently placed on suspension by the Inspector General of Police for dereliction of duty, as the suspect travelled out of his detachment without permission.
At the Police Headquarter, Benin, Matto was placed under intensive interrogation where he disclosed that he intended to kill the mobile policemen that re-arrested him at the Auchi check-point but that nemesis caught up with him.
In his statement to the police, the suspect named another mobile police officer of Mopol 5 Benin, and an armourer at the Police Headquarter, Benin as members of his dreaded syndicate.
Six serving members of the Nigerian Army in Edo, Delta and Benue states were also allegedly indicted in his statement. Matto also revealed that he paid huge sums of money in local and foreign currencies to police officers when he was earlier arrested and detained in Abuja, to facilitate his escape from police custody.
Meanwhile, the IGP, has reversed the suspension order placed on the O/C MOPOL 5 after he was cleared of culpability. Constable Matto had admitted in his statement that his gang was responsible for several bank robbery operations in Edo, Delta, Kaduna, Lagos, Abuja and Benue States. The first arrest and the confession of the Benue State- born constable came on the heels of various bank robbery attacks that took place before and during the last Christmas period in 2005, where several banks were attacked in the same commando style.
Meanwhile, residents and customers in Edo State, especially within Benin metropolis who spoke to The Source condemned the spate of attacks on banks and called for increased surveillance and security.
Recently, the Edo State Government donated 10 Hilux pick-up vans to the state police command in a bid to curtail the activities of men of the underworld in the State.