Dar es Salaam Special Zone Police Commander Simon Sirro told reporters yesterday that such robberies have recently occurred in various parts of the city, including the latest one at Access Bank.
“In the recent incident, the bandits had possessed an SMG gun and three grenades used to carry out the robbery,” said Commander Sirro. He pointed out that 12 bandits had arrived at the bank on six motorcycles at around 2.30pm on Friday.
They went straight to the security guards’ room where they found H7739 PC Harid whom they shot on the head, killing him instantly. Mr Sirro pointed out that the robbers also shot PC Shaaban on the legs, collected all the weapons and headed inside the bank where they attacked a private security guard and two civilians.
Five people were injured during the attack. He added that after such killings, they went straight to the room containing a big safe and tried to break it but failed. They rushed to the teller counters where they took about 30m/- and left on their motorcycles with the two SMG guns they had grabbed from the sentries.
“Word on the bank raid spread fast; we deployed our men with dogs and horses quickly thereby leading us to deploy defence forces along with dogs and horses to Mkuranga area,” he said.
On arrival at Chui, Mkuranga, the police went straight into action; managing to gun down three armed suspected bandits and confiscated three Russia-made grenades and SGM guns, two of which were snatched from the bank’s guards.
“It is evident that the robbers had strategically planned their raid. It can be revealed by RGD 1 grenades, which they intended to use in protecting themselves if they were to be attacked,” added Commander Sirro.
Nine suspects managed to escape leaving behind all the six motorcycles with registration numbers MC 560 AED, MC 207 BAN, MC 784 BDJ, MC 248 AXE, MC 653 BDQ and MC 853 BDR.
Mr Sirro vowed to bring to an end all criminal syndicates in the country, saying the police would arrest all those who are cooperating with or harbouring bandits.
Commenting on the robbery incident, Home Affairs Minister Charles Kitwanga said he had contacted the Minister for Defence and National Service, Dr Hussein Mwinyi, to join in the operation to hunt the bandits.
Moreover, the minister stressed that they are looking forward to carrying out a special operation in all forest reserves in Coast Region around, beginning with Bagamoyo up to Kisarawe where the bandits are suspected to have gone into hiding.
The ministry intends to destroy all hiding places used by bandits and urged all those with any information that might help lead to the arrest of the bandits to come forward and assist in the operation.
“We will conduct a special operation and we will conduct it quickly. We call upon the people, including ‘bodaboda’ riders, who are believed to have much information on some criminal activities in our society to contact the police,” Mr Kitwanga said.
He directed motorcyclists to cooperate with police officers when they are stopped for inspection as ‘bodaboda’ are mostly used in many armed and bank robberies.
“The checks should not be taken as harassment but as a measure to ensure their own safety and that of others,’’ the minister appealed. In another development, police in Dar es Salaam are holding four people who have been masquerading as police officers.
They are being interrogated to tell where they get police uniforms, radios and other official police equipment. Acting on information provided by volunteers, the police were able to nab the conmen in police uniforms who have been harassing the people for personal gain.
“After thorough interrogation, the suspects admitted to be involved in some of armed robbery incidents.
We are continuing with the interrogation to help us carry out more arrests as we believe there are others out there,’’ Mr Sirro pointed out.