THERE was palpable fear in Ajah area of Lagos State at the weekend as policemen from the state police command engaged a gang of heavily armed robbers in a heavy shootout in a foiled robbery attempt.
A gang of about fourteen armed robbers had invaded a branch of a new generation bank in Ikota area of Ajah with sophisticated weapons including home-made bomb and other explosives.
The robbers had successfully destroyed all the barricades leading to the bank and were about forcing their way into the bank premises when policemen from Ajah Divisional Police Station stormed the scene of the attempted robbery.
The Sunday Tribune gathered that all of the robbers except an unlucky one escaped through a speed boat which was stationed at the bank of the lagoon.
The robbers in an attempt to block the police from getting to the bank had bombed a red bus which they might have snatched after disengaging from their speed boat and used it to block both sides of the road.
The Divisional Police Officer in charge of the station on seeing the sophistication of the weapons being used by the robbers called for reinforcement from the Area Command and an Armoured Personnel Carrier was drafted to the scene.
The arrival of the armoured carrier led to a serious gun exchange between the robbers and policemen as heavy shootings vibrated round the entire Ikota community in Ajah.
Some people were reportedly injured in the incident but the image maker in charge of the state police command, Frank Mba, while speaking on the foiled robbery with the Sunday Tribune denied that anybody was injured in the gun duel.
Forty five people, who were at the river bank who saw the armed robbers disengaging from the boat ,have since been arrested for failing to report to the police for prompt response.
Two policemen were reportedly killed in the incident. Meanwhile, the police in the state on Saturday afternoon paraded thirteen suspected robbers and two impersonators who were arrested at different robbery spots in the last three days.
A gang of trans border armed bandits, who specialised in snatching choice cars in Nigeria and selling them at cheap prices in the neighbouring Republic of Benin, was among the paraded armed robbers.
A driver with the spy police ,who had been parading himself as a deputy commissioner of police before some divisional police officers, was also paraded after the lid on his activities was blown open by a police constable.