Date: 2012-05-26

On Thursday in Ilorin, a middle-aged man was shot dead by armed robbers  moments after he had withdrawn money from a first generation bank. Unconfirmed reports put the withdrawn sum at N1.2 million.

The incident threw traders at the popular Midland/Post-Office area into panic as they witnessed how the robbers, said to have been operating in a taxi cab, shot sporadically into the air to scare away possible help for their victim.

According to eyewitnesses, the man had gone to withdraw money from the bank, located on the popular Unity Road but decided to take the Obbo Road back on a commercial motorcycle not knowing that his attackers were already waiting in a taxi outside the bank. 

It was the first shot from the robbers that indicated to him that there was danger and made him to ask the motorcyclist to increase his speed in the densely populated street. 

The robbers were said to have  pursued him to the junction of the Obbo Road/Midland area where they fired another shot at him and also shot into the air.

The man, according to eyewitness accounts, jumped down from the motorcycle and fled towards the Post Office area but collapsed in front of a popular filling station near the railway intersection where people immediately came to his aid and rushed him to the hospital.

By that time, the robbers had escaped in their taxi and, as would be revealed later, headed for another bank to wait for another victim.

According to sources, the robbers went to another bank not far away from the first one where they also attempted to attack another victim but luck ran out on them as security operative swooped on them and nabbed the three of them.

The spokesman for the state's Police command, Mr. Dabo Ezekiel, confirmed the incident and said that a pistol was recovered from the robbers. The name of the deceased was given as Taiwo Badero, a businessman dealing in frozen fish at the Ojatuntun (New Market) area of  Ilorin. 

He is survived by his mother, a wife and six children.