Police hunt fleeing robbers after Niger guesthouse invasion

No fewer than 30 heavily armed robbers have raided a guesthouse and a residence in Minna, Niger State macheting residents and allegedly carting away over 50 phones, N100,000 and a motorcycle popularly called ‘rubber rubber’.

The incident happened around 2am on Thursday when the robbers stormed the street on Eastern Bye Pass Road in Tunga, Minna and first broke into Ben Ja’am Guest House.

They attacked occupants of all the rooms and carried out a thorough search. The robbers succeeded in collecting the phones of all the staff membes while the guests simply handed over their items without any resistance.

According to a source who pleaded anonymity, when the robbers entered the room of a civil defence operative who also lodged in the guest house, they demanded his phones but he refused and attempted to struggle with them over his phone insisting that he had vital contacts in it.

One of the robbers used his machete and tried to cut the security agent on the head but the officer raised his right hand to prevent the machete hitting his head and the weapon inflicted a deep wound on the hand.

The source told According to Metro that when the robbers gained entry into the guest house, they began to demand the handsets of occupants of the rooms which they readily handed over to them.

“They were more than 30 in number. Some were wearing masks while others did not cover their faces. They wore black shirts and trousers like vigilantes.They ordered everyone to lie down flat and not look up and started searching the rooms. They picked any valuable they laid their hands on.

“When they entered the room of the security officer, they were issuing commands and he was telling them to take it easy. He refused to give them his phone and they wanted to take it by force. One of the men tried to hit his head with his machete but he raised his hand to protect the head and the machete cut his hand.”

According to another source, while the robbers were busy in the guesthouse, one of them who stood at the entrance gate sighted a man watching the incident from one of the houses on the street. He said the robber trained his torchlight on the man and he quickly dashed back into the compound.

“Before the man could lock the door of the house, about five of the robbers from the guesthouse kicked the door open and entered the compound.

“They went into all the rooms in the compound and collected over 10 phones as well as other valuables They also collected N100,000 from one of the tenants. However, they did not inflict injuries on any of the tenants because they all cooperated.

“The robbers also collected a brand new motorcycle popularly known as rubber rubber packed inside the guesthouse,” the source said.

When According to Metro contacted the Niger State Police spokesman, Wasiu Abiodun, on Sunday for his reaction, he confirmed the attack pointing out that the robbery information reached the police late, as a result, the robbers had made their escape before the police could go after them.

“On Friday, at about 0500hrs, a report was received at Tudun-Wada Division that some hoodlums invaded a hotel at about 0300hrs along Eastern Bye-pass, Minna, and robbed about five guests of the hotel of their handsets and other valuables. The robbers were reported to have also robbed some residents around the hotel.

“Unfortunately, the information was not received on time, as the robbers had left the scene before the report got to the police. However, the incident is under investigation with a view to arrest and prosecute the fleeing robbers,” Abiodun stated.