Dare-devil armed robbers Wednesday attacked a bullion van and escaped with the 50 million naira (US$427,000) in cash being ferried by the van in Nigeria’s oil city of Port Harcourt, the local press reported Thursday. The eight-man gang, armed to the teeth and riding on six motorcycles, forced the van to stop along the busy Aba road, ordered the driver and the armed police escorts out and made away with the money. While the operation lasted, they fired into the air to scare away people. Robbing of banks and their bullion vans – most of which are not armoured – has become incessant in Nigeria. Last week, the police in Lagos successfully foiled an attempt by armed robbers to rob a bank in a Lagos suburb, in what observers described as a morale booster for the overwhelmed security agency. Panapress.
