Banks shut over robbery scare in Akure

Nigeria Punch. November 7, 2013 by Oluwole Josiah. Banks operating in Akure, the Ondo State capital, on Wednesday, hurriedly closed their doors to customers, following rumours of robbery attacks in some parts of the metropolis. Customers arriving at the banks after 2pm met the doors locked, due to the banks’ hurried closure. Heavy security presence was noticed around the capital city especially the Alagbaka area where many of the banks were located. The security operatives stopped and checked cars intermittently, but this did not affect the free flow of traffic. It was, however, gathered that there was no robbery attack on any of the banks, rather, a customer of one of the new generation banks was robbed immediately after withdrawing an undisclosed amount. It was learnt that the hoodlums who snatched the money from the man left the scene of the incident in a car. This made most of the banks in the area to lock out customers and close business for the day. Confirming the development, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Wole Ogodo, said there was a reported case of robbery but not a bank robbery. Ogodo explained that some hoodlums attacked a bank customer and snatched an unspecified amount of money, which he had just withdrawn from the bank. He said men of his command responded immediately to intervene in the situation. Ogodo added that the police were on the trail of the robbers. He said, “It was a robbery but not a bank robbery. The gentleman withdrew money from the bank while the hoodlums snatched the money from him outside the bank and took off. Our men are on their trail and they (the robbers) will be brought to book.” The PPRO urged the people of the state to go about their lawful business and should not hestitate to report any suspected criminal to the law enforcement agents.