ARMED robbers on Wednesday opened fire on director finance and chief accountant of the Ogun State Government, Taiwo Oyekanmi, and carted away with the government’s funds in a bullion van in Abeokuta, the state capital.
Our correspondent gathered that Oyekanmi had picked up an undisclosed amount of money from a branch of Fidelity bank in Abeokuta, and was heading back to the office when he was waylaid by the gunmen.
Sources said the hooded gunmen, about five of them, intercepted the home-made bullion van while ascending the overhead bridge at Kuto and opened fire on the accountant.
It was further gathered that the hoodlums wielding sledge hammer broke the bullion van door went away with the government’s money.
Insiders said Oyekanmi and other aides who sustained gunshot injuries during the attacks were rushed to the State General Hospital, Ijaye, where the accountant later died.
An official of the government told this newspaper that a police escort attached to the accountant was not part of the team as he had taken a permission to attend to family matters.
The source said the Secretary to the State Government, Tokunbo Talabi, had already visited the late accountant’s residence to commiserate with the family.
The Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alamutu, confirmed the incident in a telephone interview our correspondent on Wednesday night.
He said “This afternoon, the accountant, the Director of Finance with driver and one other person left for Fidelity bank to make some withdrawal, they went homemade bullion van. They were supposed to have a police escort, but for certain reasons, the person was permitted to travel to attend to some issues, so consequently he was not part of the movement to today.
“According to the story, after making the withdrawal, and on their way back to the office, they were accosted. A vehicle blocked them on top of the bridge, five occupants of the vehicle came down, shot at the director and from their vehicle, they brought out a sledge hammer to force the receptacle where the money was kept open and they left with the money.
“As at that time there was no information, the police escort was not with the team and they sped off.
“The driver claimed to have trailed them to a point along conference hotel where he lost contact with them.
“The director that was shut was thereafter taken to Ijaye hospital where he eventually gave up the ghost.”
Alamutu said he had demanded for the CCTV footage from the bank to aid the police’s investigation.
“For our investigation, I have directed the area commander to get to the bank and request for the CCTV footage which will give us insight into the vehicle in question and possibility of identifying the culprits if they ever ventured to step out of the vehicle or maybe they just maintained their position in the vehicle.
“I have reached out to Lagos and everywhere in the command to block all the exits out of the state while we are trying to identify them because they said they were five and they used hood.”