There is palpable fear among traders at Mile 3 market in Diobu, Port Harcourt, Rivers State following reports of robbery incident that took place at Sam Woko line of the market on Monday in which a major groundnut oil distributor reportedly lost two million naira to persons suspected to be armed robbers.
A trader who gave his name as Kelvin Tasie told National Network that at about 8:00am on Monday he and others saw four men who were changing their clothes while walking. He explained that it was not long when the groundnut distributor raised alarm that the four men robbed him of his money. The victim raised the alarm after the hoodlums had left the scene.
Our source disclosed that the money carted away by the gunmen was the sales the distributor made over the weekend which he was hoping to deposit in the bank same Monday morning.
Checks by National Network show that there were many reported robbery incidents that took place at Mile 3 market in December 2018.Traders fear that they may have such experience this year.
In the meantime, business owners have called on the Police to provide adequate security in the market to forestall re-occurrence of the incident.
In another related development, officers alleged to have come from Divisional Police Headquarters at Mile 1 reportedly gunned down an armed robbery suspect at Urualla waterfront community in Mile 1 Diobu last week Saturday.
We gathered that the Police were at the community in search of hoodlums robbing and raping women in the area. Before now, there were reports on how women residing in the community were fleeing the area over incessant rape and robbery attacks.
The Police Public Relations Officer of Rivers state command who is also a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Nnamdi Omoni was yet to respond to text messages sent to his mobile line time of filing this report.
