A gang of armed robbers killed six policemen during a gun-battle on Thursday in Kano, Kano State, while the gang lost two of its members.
The state Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Yesufu, who disclosed this to journalists on Thursday, said two Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASPs), a sergeant and three men were killed during the gun duel in the early hours of Thursday around Kano Metroplitan.
According to him, the robbers, who struck around 2.00 a.m., had killed the sergeant and an ASP attached to Wappa Bureau De -Change area of the state capital.
He said policemen attached to Fagge Police Station were attracted by the sound of gunshots and a team of policemen led by an ASP moved to the scene.
He said two other policemen were killed in the process. He said the robbers damaged the police communication systems and made away with two rifles from Fagge Division Police Station.
Against this background, the commissioner said he ordered all exits from the city closed. He said, however, that at Ramsi Roundabout, the gang had an encounter with the police patrol, shot at the police vehicle with no casualty recorded there.
“Since they they had damaged our communication systems, we had no alternative but to start communicating with GSM. We were able to reach some local government areas of the state like Bebeji, Garun Malam and Garko, where the same gang of robbers had another encounter with a police patrol team.
“It is saddening that we lost another set of policemen at that place, bringing the total number of policemen lost to six,” he said.
Yesufu, however, said that the police were able to kill two of the armed robbers at Bebeji area of the city with four AK 47 rifles recovered.
He said the robbers’ operational vehicle was also recovered with money in different currencies in it. “However , I am using this briefing to alert the public that the command is alive to its responsibility,“ he said.