Bopolu City – The MC2 Gbarpolu County Community Bank was robbed on Tuesday night, October 23, 2018 in Bopolu city by notorious criminals, who made away with millions of Liberians dollars.
Report by: Henry Gboluma
According to the only security guard at the bank, Beyan V. Sirleaf, when the incident occurred, the robbers parked their vehicle in front of the bank, got down and walked to him and said they had a breakdown so they were waiting for a mechanic to help them.
While they were sitting and conversing, according to the guard, the men offered him Chinese Attayea (herbal tea), but he told them he could only drink Bush Attayea. So, one of the criminals asked him to take him to the teashop so he could buy some for them to drink.
He said when they left, the other guys carried on the operation while he was being held at the attayea shop.
While away, the other criminals opened the iron doors and started hauling the money in their car.
When they were done, they went to the attayea shop and asked the guard to go to his post.
When he got there, according to him, he met the door opened and to his surprise, he saw one of the suspects coming out with the last bag of money. He said the man instantly dropped the bag and hit him in the eye with a fist and escaped.
The security guard then alarmed, drawing the attention of two Correction Officers on guard at the prison, which is meters away from the bank’s premises.
He informed them that robbers were still in the Bank. So, they only focused on guarding the area than chasing after the criminals that ran away. But later, they noticed that there was no one in the bank.
They called the near police checkpoint in Bopolu city but it was late. They were told
that the robbers had passed 20 minutes ago. They has left a red bag behind that contained one hard saw, two drill machines one, one-wheel rim and 150 keys.
According to the police fact-findings, they kept trying the keys to establish how the suspects got inside the vault. Two of the keys were master keys, which apparently opened all the doors from the gate to the last door leading to the vault inside the Bank.
The vault lock was reportedly spoiled before the incident took place, according to sources at the bank.
Through their investigation, they observed that the robbers left the amount of L$2,515,595 plus US$237.00.
The bank manager, Samulu Konneh disclosed that on Thursday before the incident, they had used the PSU pickup to bring into the county L$9,000,000.00. That amount was to service government workers’ salary.
He said they would disclose the total amount that was in the bank as of October 23, 2018.
Meanwhile, the management of the bank said they have closed all transactions as of Wednesday, announcing that they will resume work on Monday, October 30, 2018.
Investigations are ongoing.
This story was produced by Local Voices Liberia, a network of journalists working in the 15 counties. For more on the network and to follow other stories from the counties please go to www.localvoicesliberia.com
