A gang of armed robbers on Tuesday attacked the Ministry of Finance Budget and Planning, where they allegedly made away with N100 million after robbing the officials at gunpoint.
DAILY INDEPENDENT reported that the gunmen trailed officials of the state Ministry of Finance, Budget and Planning from a first generation bank in Lafia, the state capital, where they had gone to withdraw cash to pay casual workers of the Ministry.
An eyewitness disclosed that the incident took place at the ministry, which is adjacent to the state Accountant General’s Office, where an array of security operatives guard the state accountant general.
The source said, “It was in the Ministry’s premises that the well-armed gunmen snatched the N100 million from the Finance Ministry’s officials while trying to dislodge the cash from the vehicle that was conveying it to the Cash Room.
“In the process of snatching the amount of money, the gunmen shot sporadically in the air that the Ministry’s officials carrying the money and other staff of the Ministry within the premises lay down low paving the way for the gunmen to snatch the N100 million,” the eyewitness narrated.
According to him, the robbers had a field day because the ministry does not engage the services of security agencies in carrying out its activities.
“Officials of the Ministry wouldn’t want to expend the Ministry’s resources on security operatives hence they neglected services of security agencies in the day-to-day running of the Ministry.”
When contacted, the State Commissioner for Finance, Budget and Planning, Haruna Ogbole, confirmed the robbery incident but added that investigations were ongoing to apprehend the culprits.
He, however, declined to confirm the amount of money snatched by the suspected armed robbers.
