Armed Gangs Target Ecobank

At least 11 persons, brandishing cutlasses and other deadly objects, were over the weekend arrested while attempting to rob the Ecobank branches in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County and Kakata, Margibi County, in separate incidents.

Three of the suspects were identified as Nigerians while the rest were believed to be Liberians resident in Monrovia.

Acting Police spokesperson Lewis Norman said the suspected robbers in Kakata entered the Ecobank and attempted to open the vault when police rushed there and arrested them. He said they used an oxygen drill to open the vault.

In Zwedru, Norman said one of the seven suspected bank robbers was a Nigerian but his accomplices came from Monrovia.

Norman said the suspects arrested in Zwedru attempted to break into the walls of Ecobank’s Zwedru branch when officers of the Emergency Response Unit (ERU), acting on a tip-off, swung into action and arrested them.

Our correspondent in Zwedru, Augustus Zeon said the suspected robbers were arrested with 11 cutlasses, 1,000 assorted keys and 1,000 assorted drills which they are suspected of using to carry out their criminal operations.

Meanwhile, the police spokesperson said the suspects have been charged with armed robbery and forwarded for trial.

Our correspondent quoted authorities of the Zwedru Magistrate Court as saying that the suspects were remanded to custody, awaiting preliminary hearings at the Zwedru Magisterial Court.

When they were taken to the police station, dozens of onlookers became jittery upon seeing them in the police dragnet,” our correspondent noted.