No fewer than 30 people lost their lives in the Offa bank robbery. An attack that happened last Thursday in Kwara state and saw deadly armed robbers storm Offa town, raid 5 commercial banks and slaughter whoever stood in their way.
Eyewitnesses said the men, who numbered close to 30, blew up entrances into the banks, carried out an attack which lasted for hours and made away with several millions of naira from the banks, leaving behind a tale of sorrow, tears and blood.
Cars the armed robbers used for the Offa bank robbery have been recovered. See photos below.
It was gathered that the gunmen arrived Offa town in seven vehicles and stationed themselves in each of the banks around 4:30 pm.
They held the town hostage before escaping through Igosun route. The Offa bank robbers, in their bid to escape from Kwara also killed two mobile policemen in Okuku, Osun State, where they also reportedly abandoned three of their operational vehicles as seen in the pictures.
The vehicles have been recovered and taken to the police station in the area.
This latest Offa bank robbery will be the sixth in 11 years in the ancient city. In the first Offa banks robbery attack, on July 11, 2007, one policeman was killed.
In another attack on August 30, 2007, two policemen were injured.
The robbers came again on August 25, 2008, during which they killed three people, one of them a student of the Federal Polytechnic, Offa.
They also killed one victim during an operation on March 21, 2012. Their deadliest attack before the Thursday Offa bank robbery was carried out on December 19, 2013, during which they killed seven policemen and three civilians. In that incident the robbers were said to have numbered about 30, just like it happened on Thursday.
They also attacked four banks. But before attacking the banks, they had faced the Divisional Police station in the community, spraying policemen on duty with bullets. It was a gory sight, just like it was on Thursday.
The Nigerian Police today said that seven suspects linked to the Offa robbery attack have been arrested and are in their custody.
