Muscular men armed with revolvers, knives and other firearms, including iron rods shot into the air. Having succeeded in stirring anxiety and fear in Marché Congo with the aid of two gun blasts early last week, the assailants pounced upon shopkeepers and buyers, gagging, muting and ransacking.

The helpless buyers and sellers having also been compelled to lie down prostrate and motionless surrendered all their properties, including cartons of cellular telephones (randomly evaluated to cost two million FCFA) and yet an unknown amount of money from various individuals.

According to Samuel Kalu, a shopkeeper, the armed gang walked into the shop one after the other like any ordinary buyer. It only sounded strange when the purported "buyers" unleashed two revolvers, one firing through the ceiling, the other outside. This caused a holdup in the area as movements ground to a halt. All who were closer to the scene laid their stomach on bare ground. The act, which lasted about 10 minutes, silenced the awe-stricken and fear-laden business people and market security officials who but retrenched into hidings by strange sounds of the gun blast. Until the left no sufficient alert or recovery system had been utilized.