Dare-devil robbers have attacked an army patrol van, killing a soldier, and carted away a sack bag (Ghana-Most-Go bag) believed to have been loaded with cash in Edo state.
Politics Nigeria learnt that three soldiers were in a military vehicle heading towards the Ikpoba-hill axis of the Benin metropolis when the fearless assailants ambushed them at the traffic lights along Akpakpava road by First Junction at about 2:10 p.m.
There, the hoodlums drove an unmarked ash-coloured Toyota Camry car against the traffic (one way) towards the army vehicle as two of the four occupants allegedly alighted and opened fire on the soldiers.
Amid the rain of bullets, the three soldiers were said to have abandoned their patrol vehicle and the loaded Ghana-must-go bag as they raced in different directions for possible safety.
Eyewitnesses said the attackers grabbed the bag from the military patrol van, dropped it in their operational Toyota Camry, and sped off like a scene in a gangster movie.
It could not, however, be ascertained whether the soldiers were armed and had their arms taken away by the suspected robbers.
The incident, which the eyewitnesses said was the first of its kind in recent years in the state capital, sent cold shivers down the spines of traders and motorists in and around the Dawson area of Benin City.
When journalists visited the scene a few minutes after the attack, the victim’s blood was visible on a walkway before a petrol station as shop owners hurriedly closed businesses.
Some hawkers who witnessed and narrated the ugly attack said many people around them would have died if the soldiers had had the opportunity to respond to the gunfire of their attackers.
However, when contacted, the spokesman for Edo State Police Command, SP Chidi Nwabuzor, confirmed the incident.
He said a soldier was killed when hoodlums attacked a military patrol vehicle at the first Junction, Akpakpava Road, Benin City, some minutes past 2 p.m. today.
Nwabuzor said the assailants acted on the information that the army personnel were not armed, hence the attack.
He added that an investigation to unravel the incident will begin soon.
