Two arrested after raiding petrol station in Wajir town in robbery

Two suspects were arrested Wednesday after they had raided a petrol station along Mandera Road in Wajir Town and robbed attendants of cash.

The two were part of five men who were in jungle uniforms and who raided the petrol station at night, police said.

A guard on duty reported five men raided the facility and tied his legs and hands before robbing Sh30,000 from attendants.

An alarm was raised alerting police who were on patrol. The team responded there and caught up with two of the suspects. The other accomplices managed to escape in the 2 am incident.

They were arrested after police shot into the air twice to warn them to surrender or face death.

Police said they recovered assorted crude weapons and military jungle uniforms.

This is the latest such incident to happen in the area.

Early this month, an unknown number of thugs raided a petrol station in Wajir Town and robbed the management of money.

The gang who wore jungle uniforms, raided Normark Petrol Station on March 6 in the morning and tied the guard on duty before bundling him into one of the rooms there.

They then broke into an office and dragged out a safe that had an unknown amount of money before loading it onto a waiting motorbike.

Police said they rode off with the safe, which they intended to vandalise to access the money.

Suspected thugs have been targeting petrol stations for robberies. They target cash and fuel, police say amid probe.

On February 12, a night guard was clobbered to death by suspected thugs at a petrol station in Hagadera, Dadaab, Garissa County.

Abdi Khan, 50 was on duty at Maaf Petrol station when a gang of three who had their faces masked struck.

The gang attacked Khan using a blunt object after he tried to stop their mission. He sustained serious head injuries and died on the spot, police said.

The gang then proceeded to a room where a manager at the station was sleeping and forced their way in.

Police said the gang was armed with crude weapons and were in military jungle clothes.

They tied the manager’s his hands and legs with ropes and robbed him approximately Sh60,000, which was the day’s collection.

The said gang escaped soon after accomplishing their mission.

The manager raised an alarm and neighbours came for his rescue.

It was then that the body of the guard was discovered in the area. He had a wound in the head, police said.

Police said a hunt for the assailants is ongoing. A team of detectives visited the scene as part of the probe into the attack.

Police said they are investigating murder in the incident.