Ekiti Police kill two robbers, warn landlords

Police in Ekiti State said two armed robbers were killed in the early hours of Wednesday during a gun duel with the men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad along Ikere-Ilawe-Igbaraodo axis.

The Police had last Thursday killed a notorious armed robbery suspect, Gbenga Mattew, popularly known as Orimeji (two heads) in the state.

He was shot dead during an early morning gun duel with the police while trying to rob Akodi-Edemo community in Odo-Ado area of Ado Ekiti.

While parading the corpses in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday, the Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Alberto Adeyemi, said one of the robbers, Sunday Ojo, had escaped from the police cell  last year and went to form a deadly group that had been terrorising the residents in recent time.

He said weapons found on the robbers include a Russian style single barrel pump action, 25 cartridges, Bournvita and some little amount of money.

The PPRO warned  landlords against giving houses to tenants whose sources of livelihood were questionable to avoid harbouring robbers as neighbours.

He said, “The  SARS operatives  were on routine patrol early this morning around 1.45am  along igbaraodo-ilawe- ikere axis, they saw a Volkswagen car and stopped it for a search, but the occupants jumped down and started  firing and two ran into bush with remaining engaging the police in a serious shooting.

“The police were able to overpower them, as two of them were shot on the spot and died. Their corpses were brought to the headquarters.

“On getting here, we noticed one of them was a notorious armed robber named Ojo Sunday whose modus operandi had been to attack trailer drivers carrying cement along Igbara-Odo road, kill the driver and the bus boys  and thereafter carry the  cement to Akure or other places for sale.”

Adeyemi said Ojo recently attacked a trailer driver, but was caught during an investigation and was detained in the police cell.

“But Ojo escaped on  1st October,  2014, by breaking the cell at  night and we have been on his trail, but it was when the corpse was brought here that we were able to identify him and his accomplice.

“Even this year, Ojo and his accomplice, Michael Adedeji, robbed a trailer and later discovered about 600 bags of cements that he had sold to Akure. We  were able to recover them and we have been  looking  for them and other members of the gang because the vehicle they robbed with is already here with us and it might be a stolen vehicle.”

Adeyemi added that the police had started investigation to find out whether the vehicle belonged to any of the suspects or was hijacked from the owner.