▪︎Female journalist robbed at gunpoint
Tension and fear reigned in Benin City amid reports that an unspecified number of detainees reportedly escaped from detention at the state Command Headquarters of the Nigerian Police on Saturday night.
Most of the escapees were said to be those arrested for kidnappings, robberies and ongoing cult-related killings in the state.
As an immediate measure, some officers of the state command and others who were on duty as of the time of the incident have been reportedly detained while the road by the Command Headquarters, which was recently partially reopened after the #EndSARS protests, was completely closed to traffic.
The Commissioner of Police, who was recently promoted as Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of Police, Babatunde Johnson Kokumo and the Police Public Relations Officer, Chidi Nwabuzor had yet to formally respond to the development.
The AIG Zone Five PPRO, Tijani Momoh, said he had not been briefed by the state command which he said was the appropriate authority to respond to such enquiries.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations of the state command, Mr Ajala Ayoola, when contacted, denied that the incident happened on Saturday night but did not give further information.
He simply said, “Yes, but it’s not true that it happened last night (Saturday); but wait for a statement from the PPRO.”
Meanwhile, a female journalist and former Chairperson, Edo State Chapter of the Nigerian Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) and former Vice Chairman, Edo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Flora Bossey was reportedly robbed and dispossessed of most her belongings including her phones while trying to use an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) at Ring Road, the city centre.
The two gunmen were said to have waited for her to finish the cash withdrawal when they immediately swooped on her at gunpoint.
Bossey said the sight of the gunmen was very scary, adding they took her Zenith and First Bank ATM cards and forced her to give them the PIN numbers.
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