Police arrest Cooperative Bank staff after Sh30 million ‘robbery’ in Isiolo

Cooperative Bank, Bondo Branch. Police are investigating an alleged robbery at the bank's Isiolo branch. (Photo: Isaiah Gwengi/Standard)

Police have arrested the staff at Cooperative Bank, Isiolo branch after alleged robbery of about Sh30 million.

Police arrested the nine staff who were on duty Monday after the operations manager reported robbery of about Sh30 million at 6.30pm.

“The operations manager called police reporting robbery at the bank at 18.30 hours yesterday (Monday) and detectives promptly went to the bank to find out,” County Police Commander Charles Ontita said Tuesday.

Ontita said the officers arrested the staff “because their story was not factual and convincing”.

“They told the detectives one staff opened the door for the robbers, who entered the premises and thereafter tied them up and forced them to lie on the ground,” noted the officer.

The robbers, of unknown number and allegedly armed with AK-47 rifles then casually walked out, the staff told the police in their statement.

Guards from a reputable firm who are positioned outside the bank, told the police they did not hear of any commotion inside the premise between 4.30pm when the bank closed for business and the reported time of robbery.

“The only people present in the premises were the entire staff of the day and there were no customers. The security guards did not hear of any commotion nor noticed anything unusual,” said Ontita.

He added; “They told the officers the robbers were armed with AK-47 rifles but no one could describe how it (the weapon) looks like”.

Police are also curious why no one bothered to raise an alarm yet they were in different office cubicles.

At the busy street packed with boda-boda, taxis, bus terminus and vendors, no one noticed there was a robbery.

Ontita said police have taken the CCTV videos for further probe adding by Tuesday, footages showed no robbery.

''Full investigation has commenced and detectives are reviewing the CCTV footages but from initial probe, everything points to them (inside job),'' he added.

He said the nine staff arrested would be taken to court as investigation goes on.

Tuesday, sources said the bank head office in Nairobi recalled the few officers who were off duty while more were sent to the branch from Meru for normal business to go on.