Hooded gunmen today ambushed, robbed, and killed an accountant of the Ogun State Government, Taiwo Oyekanmi, who had gone to withdraw government funds in Abeokuta, the state capital.
The victim, identified as a Director of Finance at the Governor’s office, Oke-Mosan, had reportedly picked up an undisclosed amount of money from a branch of Fidelity Bank in Abeokuta, and was on his way back to the office when he was waylaid by the gunmen.
According to eyewitnesses, the hooded gunmen, about five of them, intercepted the home-made bullion van while it was ascending the overhead bridge at Kuto and opened fire on the accountant and other occupants of the vehicle.
It was further gathered that the hoodlums wielding sledge hammers, broke the bullion van’s door and went away with the money inside.
NewsmakersNG learnt that Oyekanmi, a chartered accountant, had once served as Assistant General Secretary of ICAN Abeokuta & District Society.
Oyekanmi and other officials who sustained gunshot injuries during the attack were rushed to the State General Hospital, Ijaye, where the accountant later died.
A police escort attached to the accountant, a government official, said that he was not part of the team as he had taken permission to attend to family matters.
The Secretary to the State Government ( SSG), Tokunbo Talabi, visited the late accountant’s residence to commiserate with the family Wednesday afternoon.
The Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alamutu, has confirmed the incident in a telephone chat with City Voice.
He said, “This afternoon, the accountant, the Director of Finance with driver and one other person left for Fidelity Bank to make some withdrawal. They went with homemade bullion van. They were supposed to have a police escort, but for certain reasons, the person was permitted to travel to attend to some issues, so consequently he was not part of the movement today.
“According to the story, after making the withdrawal, and on their way back to the office, they were accosted. A vehicle blocked them on top of the bridge, five occupants of the vehicle came down, shot at the director and from their vehicle, they brought out a sledge hammer to force the receptacle where the money was kept open and they left with the money.
“As at that time there was no information, the police escort was not with the team and they sped off.
“The driver claimed to have trailed them to a point along conference hotel where he lost contact with them.
“The director that was shot was thereafter taken to Ijaye hospital where he eventually gave up the ghost.”
Alamutu added that he had demanded for the CCTV footage from the bank to aid the police’s investigation.
He said, “For our investigation, I have directed the area commander to get to the bank and request for the CCTV footage which will give us insight into the vehicle in question and possibility of identifying the culprits if they ever ventured to step out of the vehicle or maybe they just maintained their position in the vehicle.
“I have reached out to Lagos and everywhere in the command to block all the exits out of the state while we are trying to identify them because they said they were five and they used hood.”
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