The police in Lagos yesterday said the Inspector who was shot by gunmen at the Idimu area of the state is alive.
According to a statement, the command’s spokesperson, Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent (SP) said the Inspector identified as Musa and attached to the Police Mobile Force (PMF) Keffi, Lagos was rushed to Ikeja General Hospital where the bullet was extracted.
Badmos also disclosed that the policeman was trailed from the bank and shot in the face in a bid to dispossess him of the money he was carrying.
It was learnt that Musa, who was not dressed in Police uniform had gone to make some withdrawals from a commercial bank on Okunola Road in Mosan-Okunola Local Council Development Area.
The gunmen, who stormed the place on two motorcycles and had earlier killed a bank customer, were said to have trailed him to his Ford Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV), where he was shot on the head.
Badmos said: “The gang had targeted a customer coming out of a bank, the customer who was later identified as an Inspector of police was fired on the face in order to dispossess him of the money he’s carrying in a bag. The sound of the shooting attracted the IGP’s team and patrolmen from Idimu who swiftly moved to the scene.
“On sighting the operatives, the robbers opened fire and the team responded which led to two of the robbers being hit by bullets. The robbers were rushed to hospital where they were confirmed dead while the victim is recovering in the hospital.
“The case was transferred to Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), where investigation revealed that the suspect Gafar Ismail is on the wanted list of the command for cases of Okada robbery.”
It was gathered that detectives from SARS stormed the bank premises yesterday to apprehend an employee fingered by Ismail as their informant.
Ismail was quoted as saying: “We have a bank worker who usually informs us whenever any customer withdraws huge amount. We would position our motorcycles around the bank and wait for the customer. Immediately we sight the person we would ride our bike close and snatch the money. We usually shoot if the person put up resistance. At the end of any operation, we would give him the largest chunk and share the rest amongst ourselves. We were told that the last customer withdrew over N300,000 but we were not successful as the police chased and got us.”