Gunmen suspected to be armed robbers on Friday shot dead a middle-aged man identified as Emmanuel Omomo and carted away his money in Bayelsa State.
It was gathered that the incident happened at 10am within the premises of a bank around the Sani Abacha Expressway in Yenagoa where Omomo had gone to withdraw an undisclosed amount of money.
After withdrawing the money, he was said to have entered a tricycle which he allegedly arranged to take him to his destination when the robbers, four in number struck.
It was learnt that soon after he went into the tricycle, the criminals who had been allegedly lurking around, pulled up and blocked the tricycle.
An eyewitness, who claimed to be in the bank premises at the time of the incident but pleaded not to be mentioned, said that after the blockade, the bandits ordered Omomo to hand over the bag containing the money to them.
He said, “The bank customer refused to release the bag containing the money, a situation which reportedly angered the robbers.
“When they tried to forcefully take the bag from Omomo, he refused and ran out of the tricycle to the bank premises towards the queue.
“it was at that point that the infuriated robbers pursued their victim and shot him several times.
“The robbers, who were allegedly armed with AK 47 rifles shot indiscriminately to scare other customers in the queue and escaped in a waiting vehicle.”
The Police Public Relations Officer, Bayelsa State Command, Mr Asinim Butswat, said the police authorities in the state had launched a manhunt for the unidentified gunmen who shot the bank customer in Yenagoa.
He said, “The unfortunate incident occurred on July 3, 2020, at about 1000 hours, on the premises of a new generation bank in Yenagoa when a customer was accosted by gunmen after he withdrew money.
“The armed robbers who came in a black Toyota Camry car accosted the customer one Emmanuel Omomo ‘m’, when he came out of the bank after making the withdrawals, shot him, collected all the money in his possession and zoomed off.
“The victim was immediately rushed to the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, where he was confirmed dead.”