The Oyo state Police Command last week intercepted a van carrying some military weapons from a gang of suspected armed robbers. The police claimed those arrested were planning to rob banks within Ibadan, the state capital.
Weapons recovered include seven AK47 riffles, 103 AK47 riffle magazines, one assault riffle magazine, 727 GPMG ammunition, explosive materials, and one chisel.
Adisa Baba Bolanta, the state police commissioner told journalists that the gang was intercepted by men of the highway patrol team at the Ibadan toll-gate end of the Ile-Ife-Ibadan expressway last week Monday.
Mr Bolanta said the gang of six men conveyed in a cream-colour volkswagen van.
He said his men had flagged them down for a check, but rather than stop, the driver of the vehicle sped off and almost knocked down a police sergeant, member of the patrol team.
The reckless driving and the fact that all the six occupants of the vehicle were young men dressed in layers of clothes fuelled the patrol team's suspicion and they gave the gang a hot chase.
The team, according to the CP, caught up with the gang at the Ibadan toll gate end and forced it to stop. As soon as the vehicle stopped, all the suspects jumped down and fled to the bush, but the driver of the vehicle, Chinedu Nwayanwu, was not as lucky as he was arrested while attempting to escape.
Bank robbers
Those arrested confessed that they were coming from Akure, Ondo state to rob banks in Ibadan, claimed the police. Mr Nwayanwu, who was wreathing in pains on account of gun wound sustained from the police team who arrested him, refused to say much to journalists beyond repeating ‘I am a driver'.
He, however, reportedly told the police that the gang was the one that robbed a First bank branch in Ibadan some months ago, adding that they came from Lagos to sleep in a church at Akure where they attended a night vigil with other Christians before heading for Ibadan where they planned to do their operation.
The arms and ammunitions were neatly concealed in the van roof, which carries the sticker of an authorised vehicle for commercial purpose in a military barracks.
He also denied that two people were killed before the "anti-Akala" rally held at Ogbomoso last week. He said policemen were on ground just as other security agencies and they had no record of any loss of life before, during, and after the rally.
He, however, agreed that there was ‘a disorder of magnificent scale' in the town on the day of the rally, but blamed that on the organisers of the rally, who, he claimed, went beyond what they told the police they planned to do.
Five people arrested for unlawful behaviour during the rally, he informed, will soon be prosecuted.
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