Some police officers at a station reportedly took to their heels after they heard gunshots from robbers.

There was drama and confusion at policemen attached to the Ibafo Police Division in Ogun State, took to their heels, with some jumping over the fence, as a gang of gunmen, tried to abduct a man and his wife in their Landcruiser SUV, in front of the station before shooting a security man dead.

The incident happened on Monday, January 18, and according to witnesses, instead of the policemen coming out to confront the robbers, they shut the gate of the station and bolted into neighbouring bushes with some removing their uniforms and running away only in their boxer shorts.

The couple, Oluwakunmi Ayodeji, an engineer, and his pregnant wife, Oyin, were said to be returning from a maternity centre behind the police station when they were attacked by the gang.

A family friend of the couple who gave her name as Bisola Olojede, said she was in the vehicle with the couple and escaped by a whisker.

Olojede explained that she had taken the couple to the maternity centre where Oyin had a scan and they were leaving the centre for a hospital in Ikeja when the robbers struck.

“The incident happened around 10pm. The woman, who is my friend, was pregnant and her doctor recommended that she should do a scan. I was called to take them to a private maternity centre in Ibafo.

From the maternity centre, we decided to go to a hospital in Ikeja. As her husband opened the vehicle doors with a remote, she entered and sat at the front, while I took my seat at the back.

Her husband had just entered the SUV when a man suddenly appeared and started dragging the steering with him. I alighted from the car and called for help. I saw a man and I begged him to assist us, but he ignored me. I never knew he was among the robbers.”

Olojode said a few minutes later, the robbers drove away with Oluwakunmi and his wife and she ran after the vehicle calling for help, and that some residents joined her in chasing the vehicle but when the robbers got to the front of the Ibafo Police Station, they stopped and fired into the crowd of pursuers.

“The bullet hit one of us and the man died immediately. The police heard the gunshot and rushed out. I started begging them to help us, saying there was a pregnant woman in critical condition in the vehicle. There were two of them, a man and a woman. But they shunned me."

According to another witness, on hearing the gun shots, the police quickly shut their gate with some of them removing their uniforms an scaling the fence of the station.

It was however gathered that the robbers dropped off the couple at the Lotto end of the expressway after shooting the man in the eye region.

But the State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Muyiwa Adejobi, denied that the police fled and shut its gate against the residents.

 “We have a confirmation that somebody was shot dead around the police station and the police heard a woman calling for help; and she was attended to.

Nobody shut any gate; it is not possible. The couple, who were abducted, were rescued in the Redemption Camp area, and they have regained their freedom. They are being treated in a clinic.”

Source: Pulse