Some armed men, yesterday, trailed the cashier of Minna Emirate Council, in Niger State and carted away undisclosed sum of money belonging to the council.
According to the emirate, the cashier was returning from the bank when the robbers trailed him to the palace and took the money from him.
Garba Musa Kuta, Secretary of the Emirate Council in an audio obtained by WikkiTimes, confirmed the heist, saying the armed robbers wreaked havoc up to the second gate of the palace where they overpowered local vigilantes and palace guards trying to repel them.
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“What happened is that we were in the palace with His Highness, the Emir when we started to hear sound similar to gunshot (tatatas-tatatas),” he relived. “At first we thought it was the children playing outside,and even the emir didn’t heard it.”
“Yes, it was gunshots and we heard people shouting that it is armed robbers. I came out leaving the emir inside and upon coming out, I realized that yes it was the real armed robbers because I saw two of our palace guards shot. One was shot on his lap while the other on his chest. We hurriedly rushed them to general hospital and they are currently receiving treatment.
“The armed robbers have invaded the palace because they have reached up to second gate of the palace. They didn’t reached where the emir was because I thought they were afraid something may happen to them.
“They were after money. They trailed the person carrying the money and overpowered him. They fired shots sporadically until they confiscated the money and gone away with it.
“The money belong to the Emirate Council. The Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of CID has came and commiserate with the emir, he told us that they will investigate the incident,” Kuta said.
However, Niger State Police Command’s Public Relations Officer, DSP Wasiu Abiodun, confirmed the incident, adding the intruders did not gain access into the palace.
Wasiu told Daily Trust a gang of about five armed robbers trailed the cashier with a Toyota Camry vehicle from a commercial bank where he went to withdraw money.
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“He was blocked at the palace gate, and the robbers fired some gunshots in the air, while they forcefully took the money from him and escaped from the scene,” he said.
According to him, the cashier is undergoing interrogation at the police area command, Minna, with a view to ascertain the details of the incident.
WikkiTimes had earlier reported that the emirate suspended its Sallah durbar as banditry activities rock its environs.
The emirate claimed that the decision was taken to sympathise with the victims of banditry attacks around the state capital.
