Judex Okoro, Calabar
Tragedy struck the Cross River State Police Command as a police officer, Inspector Ebri Ogban, was shot dead by armed bandits.
Ogban, until his death, was attached to Operations Department of the Command, in Calabar, the state capital, and was said to have met his untimely death while going home after night duty.
Daily Sun checks revealed that the Control Room of the command got a distress call about 3:00a.m. that there was robbery operation going on at Otop Abasi Street and the operatives moved in immediately.
Sensing danger, the armed men took to their heels and on sighing Ogban, they opened fire and shot at him, killing him on the spot.
An eyewitness, John Ekpo, said the victim was coming back from work after being on night duty and wasn’t in the team that was chasing the robbers when he was shot at Otop Abasi Street.
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According to Ekpo, after shooting the police man to death, the suspects escaped, thinking that he was one of those police officers who were after them.
Police Public Relations Officer, (PPRO), Ms Irene Ugbo, who confirmed the report, said the policemen on duty in the Control Room got distress calls that there was armed robbery operations at Otop Abasi in Calabar Municipal Government of Cross River State and its environments and they moved in swiftly.
But it was unfortunate that Inspector Ogban, who came back from work, without knowing what happened, was shot by the robbers twice and he died on the spot, adding that nobody had been arrested but investigations were on going.
“This police man did not know anything about the incident and he was just going on his own with uniform and when those armed robbers saw him, they thought he was amongst those who were chasing them, they opened fire on him twice and he died on the spot,” she stated.