The resolution of the Senate to observe a minute silence followed its consideration of a motion on the urgent need for the police to investigate the incident.
The Senate also urged the police to investigate the circumstances surrounding the attack as well as unravel the mystery of lack of intelligence and alertness on the part of the police on the day of the attack.
The robbers stormed four commercial banks – First Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Stanbic IBTC, and Zenith Plc – around noon on Friday, witnesses told PREMIUM TIMES.
Sewuese Anene, police spokesperson in Benue State, confirmed the incident to this newspaper in a telephone call.
Ms Anene did not provide details of how it happened.
“The armed robbers stormed the four banks in Otukpo metropolis on Friday after and began to shoot sporadically. They killed about 10 people. It was like hell,” a witness told this reporter in a telephone call on Friday evening.
A passer-by who did not want his name in print said the criminals killed both customers who were in the banking halls and passers-by.
First Bank Plc is located along the Otukpo-Enugu highway opposite the Police Area Command in Otukpo.
But witnesses said there was no police response to the attack as the hoodlums had a field day.
How it happened
The hooded criminals drove into Otukpo town in Toyota Hilux vehicles and cars from the Otukpa axis of the Otukpo-Enugu highway.
“They first stormed Zenith Bank and then quickly spread out to the three other banks where they robbed simultaneously.
“The robbers rained bullets from all directions which hit passers-by and bank customers, but the police took cover for the over two hours that the operation lasted,” a resident in Otukpo metropolis narrated.
The Otukpo Divisional Police Officer (DPO), whose name could not be ascertained as of press time, was hit by bullets and taken to an undisclosed hospital, sources said.
