How Bandits Killed Cop in Bayelsa Police Station

Emmanuel Addeh in Yenagoa
Barely a month after a policemen was murdered after ‘straying’ while on patrol duty, the Police in Bayelsa State have again confirmed the killing of a cop on guard duty at Sagbama Police Station in Yenagoa.

It was learnt that the deceased who was discussing with some of his colleagues at the gate of the station was targeted by the armed gang , while his compatriots took to their heels, apparently to ‘take cover’.

But while the suspects made away with the service rifle of the policemen killed in a pub while straying from duty, barely three weeks ago, according to the state command, they left their latest victim without collecting his gun.

Mr Asinim Butswat, the state Police Public Relations Officers, (PPRO), said in Yenagoa on Tuesday that a manhunt for the killers had commenced.
He confirmed that the latest victim, a sergeant, was shot dead while on guard duty at the Sagbama Police Station in the Yenagoa metropolis, adding that the killers zoomed off immediately.

Butswat said : “The policeman was killed on Sunday at about 8:30 p.m. in front of the Sagbama Police Station by two unknown gunmen on an unregistered motorcycle.

“We are working to establish the motive behind the dastardly act because they didn’t stop. We recovered the rifle of the dead policeman.
“They shot at the policeman and zoomed off but we have swung into action and some people have volunteered useful information”.

However, the incident which was said to have thrown the policemen at the station into confusion, fuelling fears that security operatives might be the next target of bandits in the state capital.

Witnesses said it was also unclear why the colleagues of the deceased who survived the attack did not go after the fleeing gunmen, since they rode on a bike.

Meanwhile, the police Spokesman said yesterday that they had apprehended one Abel Miracle ,12 years and David Agbagidi ,14, who reportedly specialise in robbing unsuspecting residents of Yenagoa.

“The driver of a tricycle, one Jacob Philip, drove to the Julius Berger roundabout and alerted Policemen that he suspected the two children he was carrying were thieves.

“The sum of one hundred and thirty thousand, four hundred was recovered from them. They confessed to stealing the money from a bag belonging to an unknown person at Swali waterside”, Butswat said.