Fears of a possible spread of Thursday’s bloody robbery in Offa, Kwara State to Ilorin, the state capital forced all banks in the city to shut their gates against customers yesterday.

The situation adversely affected preparations by many families for Christmas festivities, as crowds of bank customers were seen along the commercial centres of Murtala and Taiwo Roads pleading with security men at the banks to let them in after tedious screening.

Meanwhile, facts began to emerge yesterday concerning the real casualty figures in the raids that affected Offa branches of Ecobank, Zenith Bank, First Bank and GT Bank.

When Saturday Mirror visited the Offa Specialist Hospital on Friday, mortuary attendants reported that there were ten corpses said to be those that were killed in the raids.

Some of the bodies were in uniforms of security staff of some of the affected banks, two were in police uniform and others were in mufti, which made their identities difficult to ascertain.

About 20 patients were also seen receiving treatment for injuries they sustained in the attacks. There are unconfirmed reports that banks in Offa may be shut for one year because of the state of insecurity facing banks in the metropolis.

Meanwhile, the Kwara State Police Command has deployed a heavy presence of its men and officers to Offa, as over 15 Toyota Hilux 4-wheel vans were seen patrolling the sprawling town yesterday.

News of the death of a manager of one of the attacked banks could not be confirmed as at the time of filing this report. The manager was said to have sustained serious injuries and was rushed to the hospital on Friday morning, where he is believed to have given up the ghost.