By our Reporter
Three people has been identified dead during the attack on a bank at Ilara Mokin town in the Ifedore Local Government Area of Ondo State.
The three people were killed by stray bullets during the Thursday incident.
A huge amount of money was said to have been taken away by the hoodlums.
The deceased include a policeman,a commercial motorcyclist and Senior Public relations officer with the Elizade University, Mr Bunmi Afuye who assumed office two months ago having resigned from Ondo State Radio Corporation,(OSRC).
The robbers were said to have shattered the bullet-proof door of the bank with dynamite before gaining access into the banking hall.
A witness said the slain Okada rider and the Elizade worker were passing by when they ran into the robbers while the operation was ongoing.
They were said to have been hit by stray bullets.
It was also learnt that the policeman was killed by the dynamite.
He said, “I was inside the bank when they came. Immediately, all of us lay down and they started shouting, ‘Where is the manager?’
“So, they got the key to the vault and packed the money there. But they were not satisfied with what they saw and they opened the Automated Teller Machine. By then, there was not enough money. That infuriated them and they shouted, ‘Where is the money?’ It seemed they didn’t get their target. After they took the money, they went out angrily shooting to escape the scene.”
It was learnt the robbers who entered from Ilara Mokin escaped through smoking hills road opened in 2019 by Mr Babajide Fashola to Akure and abandoned the vehicle they came to operate with along that axis.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Tee-Leo Ikoro, confirmed the incident, adding that a team of policemen had been deployed in the scene, while investigation was ongoing.
Meanwhile, the Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, in a statement on Thursday, directed security agencies in the state to arrest “the perpetrators of this heinous crime and bring them to book in the shortest possible time.”
He said the death of Afuye had cost the journalism profession “a bright star.”
Governor Akeredolu expresses his heartfelt condolences to the wife and children, family, the University community as well as the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) over this loss that he considers a personal one.