25th May, 2012
Special Anti-Armed Robbery Squad,SARS, complemented by a patrol team from the Diobu Divisional Police Division of the Rivers State Police Command were locked in fierce gun battle with a gang of five armed robbery suspects around the Njamanze Waterfronts in Port Harcourt, at 3.20pm Thursday.
A statement by Mr. Ben Ugwuegbulam, the spokesman of the Rivers State Police Command, made available to our correspondent today said that a gang of five armed robbers had robbed Mrs Ngozi in the Diobu area of the state capital and were escaping through the Njamanze waterfronts.
He said when the police received a distress call that the hoodlums were operating in a Toyota Corolla saloon car they quickly mobilised divisional patrol teams complemented by patrol teams from SARS and Swift Operation Squad, SOS, and gave them a hot chase.
According to the statement, the gangsters were intercepted at Njemanze waterfronts, one of the slums adjacent Silverbird Galleria.
“On sighting the police, the armed men abandoned their operational vehicle and escaped into the Njamanze swamp from where they engaged the police in exchange of gun fire,” he said, adding that two members of the gang were shot dead in the encounter.
The police recovered the operational vehicle of the hoodlums, six rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, mobile phones and some documents.
Ugwuegbulam said that they have commenced investigation to track down the fleeing members of the gang.
Recently during a media chat with heads of the media in Rivers State, the Rivers State Police Commissioner, Mr. Abubakar Indabawa, vowed that the command under his watch will make life uncomfortable for hoodlums who want to forcefully deprive innocent persons of their lives and property in the state.
—Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt