Chidi Samuel
The Nigeria Police, Rivers State Command say they have arrested a senior staff of Access Bank Plc, for his alleged involvement in a foiled armed robbery operation at a branch of the bank in Port Harcourt on the 22nd of December 2016. Arrested with him is a dismissed police sergeant who was attached to the bank as security personnel.
Don Awunah, the Rivers state police spokesman in a statement gave the names of the banker and the dismissed policeman as Samuel Ndudiri and Promise Ukwuoma respectively. Also arrested are Samuel Nwala, 28; Lucky Ukwuoma, 26; and Kaale Taagabah, 27.
Awunah disclosed in the statement that Nwala, Ukwuoma, and Taagabah, armed with AK-47 rifles, stormed the branch of the bank in December last year with the help of Ndudiri, the bank official, who the police described as the mastermind of the robbery.
According to Awunah, “The armed robbers successfully broke down the well-fortified security doors and barriers and took over the banking hall,” the police said in the statement.
“They were almost pulling down the vault and other strong rooms in the bank with use of gas cylinder, welding machine and iron cutters before the joint Police Teams of IGP’S Intelligence Response Team and policemen from Rivers State Police Command swiftly moved in and dislodged them.”
The confessional statements of the three arrested robbers led to the arrest of the bank official, Mr. Ndudiri, the police said.
The arrest of robbers eventually lead to the arrest the bank official, who subsequently took the police to the bank security personnel, Mr. Ukwuoma, who was actively involved in the attempted bank robbery.
Awunah said that the manhunt for the other suspects were on while those already in custody will soon appear in court.