Three persons were feared killed as armed robbers attacked two commercial banks in Ikere-Ekiti, the headquarters of Ikere local government area ofEkiti state.

It was gathered that the daredevil armed robbers numbering twenty stormed the town around 5:15pm and carried out the attacks on the two commercial banks simultaneously.

It was also learnt that the robbers first attacked the Ikere command of the Amotekun Corpsalong Ise Road and reportedly shot some operatives before attacking the banks.

A source said that in “the well coordinated attacks” which lasted about 45 minutes, the armed robbers reportedly killed three persons while scores sustained varying degrees of injuries.

According to the source, the gun-wielding robbers invaded Wema bank and Access bank located atOdo Oja and Okeosun respectively and broke the security door with the aid of dynamite before entering the banking hall.

The source disclosed that the dynamite blew up the entrancedoors as well as several cars parked in the vicinity of the banks.

He added the armed robbers who split themselves into two groups carted away unspecified huge sum of money.

Confirming the incident in a telephone chat with our reporter, the Ogoga of Ikere Ekiti, Oba Adejimi Alagbado expressed shock at the robbery incident, describing it as unfortunate.

He said it was unfortunate the armed robbers carried out the operations for several minute unhindered and escaped despite presence of military checkpoints and Police Area Command in the town.

Oba Alagbado said he has discussed the matter with the security agents and that those who carried out the dastard act must be arrested and prosecuted.

He said: “It is an unfortunate incident that we do not expect to happen. The attacks were on two commercial banks. Ihavecalled the Area Commander, DPO and DSS and they have all assured the soldiers around the axis have been alerted”.

All efforts to reach the Ekiti state Police spokesman,Sunday Abutu to get his reaction were not successful.

Several calls made to his mobile phone were not answered while text message sent to him had yet to be replied as of the time of filing this report.(Courtesy, excluding headline, The Nation)