IGARRA-Men of the Underworld were on the prowl yesterday in Igarra as they raided the branch of Unity Bank and carted away huge amount of money from the banks vault.
The incident, which took everyone by surprise, was the first of its kind in the area.
According to one of the Private Security Officers attached to the bank, the men who were well dressed entered the bank one after the other and at about 1.30p.m, one of them came out to call him from the door leading to the banking hall, that the Manager wished to see him.
“Immediately I entered the banking hall, the rest of them brought out their guns and asked everybody to raise their hands up. Handsets were seized and then they pushed all of us into one room and asked the manager to lead the way to the vault.
Meanwhile, People outside the bank were ignorant of what was going on inside”, he said.
Some of the customers who had this harrowing experience said the men warned that if they co-operate, they would not hurt them adding that within 10 minutes the robbers were through.
At the time, our reporter arrived the scene, few minutes later, a Police Vehicle was seen but some members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) chased the robbers towards Auchi.
Men of the State Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) in Auchi. on sighting the robbers along Igarra-Auchi Road in their Toyota Camry Car and BMW 5 series were said to have exchanged fire with them, but the robbers escaped and moved towards Okpella.
It was learnt the bank immediately closed operations while the manager, Mr. Joy Meregini and his staff were seen at the Igarra Divisional Police Station with some Mobile Policemen communicating with their colleagues in other formations in Afemai.
Mr. Joy Meregini, the branch manager who was visibly shaken in a chat with newsmen could not ascertain the exact amount carted away from the Banks vault.
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