Police in Ekiti State on Thursday killed a notorious armed robbery suspect, Gbenga Mattew, popularly known as Orimeji (two heads) in the state.
Orimeji was shot dead during an early morning gun duel with the police while trying to rob Akodi-Edemo community in Odo-Ado area of Ado Ekiti.
Police Public Relations Officer of the state command, Alberto Adeyemi, told journalists that Orimeji met his Waterloo when he and his gang of five robbers dared the officers of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad and shot sporadically at them.
Adeyemi said, “Early this morning (Thursday, March 12) the Officer in Charge of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad got a tip-off that some robbers were robbing in Akodi Edemo community. So, he swung into action with his men and met about five robbers in operation and the robbers opened fire on the SARS team but the team did its best to arrest them alive.
“Two of the officials of our SARS team were wounded in the gun battle. Orimeji jumped down from the house and was trying to reload his riffle and shoot the SARS men, it was at that point that our men were left with no choice than to shoot him.
“The other members of the robbery gang had escaped with bullet wounds. We are appealing to members of the public and the hospitals, if they see anybody with bullet wounds, they should not move close to them but call the nearest police station. So that we can come and arrest them.
“The leader of the gang that was shot dead is Gbenga Mattew, alias Orimeji, he is a very notorious armed robber with a track record of armed robbery of about 12 years. We have arrested him on many occasions and charged him to court.
“He was among the escapees in the last prison break in Ekiti. They call him Orimeji Omo Bose.
“We understand that Ekiti has three notoriuos armed robbery gangs, so we have smashed one by the killing of Orimeji. We have intensified efforts to get the other two. We have already mapped out strategies to get them; I cannot disclose such strategies to you here, but I can tell you that in the next two days, we will have another breakthrough that would be bigger than this.
“About N120,000 and three US dollars were recovered from him. His riffle, a locally made one, was also recovered.
“I am sure the residents of the Akodi Edemo Area will tell you that they have never seen the kind of massive gun fight between the police and the robbers that occurred around 3.15am early this morning in the area before.”