Armed robbers attacked a van ferrying cash and killed five policemen, including officers who were escorting it and others at a checkpoint, along Nigeria’s South-eastern Enugu-Onitsha highway Wednesday, the private Guardian newspaper reported Thursday. It quoted eyewitnesses as saying that the robbers, who apparently laid ambush for the van, opened fire as soon as they sighted it as it headed to Awka in Anambra State. It said the robbers then blew open the van’s safe and made away with an undisclosed amount of money. Three policemen were killed at the same spot in a similar attack three months ago. Attacks on cash vans have been frequent in Nigeria in recent times, despite the fact that the vans are escorted by armed policemen. The police authorities have issued an ultimatum to banks to purchase armoured cash vans or lose the services of policemen usually deployed to escort the cash-ferrying vans.
