21st March, 2012
A gang of six armed robbers killed a motorist and injured many others when they struck along Sagamu- Ore- Benin express road early this morning.
Our correspondent gathered that the robbers operating in a brown Sienna car were on a trail of a white Hummer bus driver coming from Lagos, who was waylaid at Ore motor park, beside NIMCO filling station on the expressway.
One of the drivers at the park, who pleaded anonymity, disclosed that the robbers arrived the area around 6:50am and were armed with weapons, as they alighted from the car.
“We were at the park this morning doing our business when the robbers came in a brown Sienna car. They were trailing a white Hummer bus loaded with paints.
It was only the driver that was in the bus. When they got to our park, they cornered the man and one of them got down from the car, pretending to call out for Warri passengers.
“When one of our drivers moved near him to warn him not to call passengers at our park, before he could say a word, they started shooting into the air to scare us away.
“In a jiffy, two people came down and bundled the driver of the white hummer bus into their car. The driver was pinned down by one of the robbers, who pointed a gun at him not to raise an alarm.
“As if that was not enough, they opened fire at us and shouted: ‘Wetin una dey look’. Before we could understand what was going on, one man who came to load passengers in our park with a white 18-seater bus with registration number, PG 648 KJA was shot, while many others were hit by stray bullets.”
The driver said another driver, simply identified as Hossanna, was hit in the leg and was taken to an undisclosed hospital for treatment.
As at the time of filing this report, the corpse of the man was still at the park, which has been deserted by motorists, passengers and hawkers who fled for safety, while the two filling stations have been shut.
A police officer attached to Ikoto Police Station told our correspondent that efforts are in top gear to locate the family of the deceased and also beef up security around the area.
—Abiodun Onafuye/ Abeokuta