A woman who was travelling to the Eastern part of the country for Chritsmas celebrations was reportedly murdered on Sunday, December 21, 2014 during an exchange of gun fire between the operatives of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and suspected hoodlums at the bank of Niger Bridge in Asaba, Delta State.
The five-man gang made it difficult for travellers to pass the Niger Bridge as they laid siege awaiting unlucky persons who are travelling for the Christmas festivities.
According to New Telegraph reports, the hoodlums hid near the motor park of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), waiting to unleash terror on the travellers but SARS men from Onitsha, Anambra State raced to the area and engaged the hoodlums in a shootout which lasted for almost 25 minutes. This forced commuters to scamper for safety while many lay flat on the ever-busy Benin-Asaba- Onistha Expressway in a desperate bid to escape stray bullets.
A gun duel ensued between the men of the SARS and the assailants who used an 18-seater bus to avoid the bullets.
While most of them escaped after sustaining some injuries from the bullet but one of them was eventually arrested and taken to the police station.
An anonymous eyewitness who narrated the incident said, “The robber was caught while trying to flee the scene with bullet wounds and was taken to the ‘C’ Divisional Police Headquarters.
“One of the tyres of the fullyloaded 18-seater bus, which the gang was using to protect themselves from police bullets, was punctured while a female passenger was hit by bullets from the robbers. The woman died on the spot.”
The body of the deceased was thereafter taken to a mortuary in Asaba by the officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC).
