Laleye Dipo in Minna
Five unidentified gunmen yesterday morning robbed the Chief Accountant of the Niger State Head of Service, Alhaji Idris Abdullahi, of over N9.5million in Minna, the state capital.
The gunmen had trailed Abdullahi from a commercial bank up to the gates leading to the state secretariat complex where they blocked the road in an unmarked vehicle making it impossible for the chief accountant to drive to the office which is just a stone throw from where the gunmen blocked the road.
The criminals immediately started shooting sporadically into the air making people and motorists coming towards the secretariat to scamper for safety.
The money was said to be the overhead expenses fund for the office of the Head of Service for the month of August.
An eyewitness told THISDAY that one of the gunmen approached the vehicle conveying the chief accountant, and took the money said to be in bags popularly known as ‘Ghana Must Go’.
The gunmen, according to the eyewitness, continued to shoot into the air as they drove through the western by- pass in a blue 406 Peugeot salon car.
The vehicle was said to have been involved in a crash as the robbers tried to escape making them to abandoned it after which they reportedly snatched another one in which they got away to safety.
When contacted, the state Police Command Public Relations Officer, DSP Muhammed Abubakar, confirmed the incident, saying men of the anti-robbery squad had been sent after the robbers.
Abubakar said: “We are trailing them; we will make sure we arrest them,” adding that information about the incident had been relayed to all police points across the state.
About three weeks ago, a similar incident happened when the cashier of the state Judicial Service Commission (JSC) was robbed of N1.9million.
The police declined to say if there was any correlation between the two incidents.
