Five gunmen on Monday morning snatched over N9.5 million from the Chief Accountant of the Office of the Niger State Head of Service (HoS) in Minna, the state capital.

The gunmen had trailed the Chief Accountant, Alhaji Idris Abdullahi, from a commercial bank up to the gates leading to the state secretariat complex where they blocked the road in an unmarked vehicle making it impossible for the chief accountant to drive to the office which is just a stone throw from where the gunmen blocked the road.

The gunmen immediately started shooting sporadically into the air making people and motorists coming towards the secretariat to scamper for safety.

The money was said to be the overhead expenses for the Office of the Head of Service for August.

An eyewitness told THISDAY that one of the gunmen approached the vehicle conveying the chief accountant and took the money said to be in “Ghana Must Go” bags.

The gunmen, according to the eyewitness, continued to shoot into the air as they drove through the Western by-pass in a blue 406 Peugeot salon car.

The vehicle was said to have been involved in a crash as the robbers tried to escape making them to abandon the car after which they reportedly snatched another one in which they got away.

When contacted, the state Police Command Public Relations Officer, DSP Muhammed Abubakar, confirmed the incident, saying men of the anti-robbery squad have been sent after the robbers.

Abubakar said: “We are trailing them, we will make sure we arrest them,” adding that information about the incident had been relayed to all police points across the state.

About three weeks ago, a similar incident, which involved the cashier of the state Judicial Service Commission, took place during which N1.9 million was snatched from the cashier.

The police declined to say if there is a correlation between the two incidents. (THISDAY)