Four residents of Kigali City were on Thursday night arrested in Nyanza District as they attempted to break into a local branch of Banque Populaire du Rwanda (BPR).

The suspects (names withheld), whose ages range between 27 and 49, include two mechanics who had been working at Kinamba, Kacyiru, a taxi driver and a shop owner in Kicukiro.

They were by press time detained at Busasamana Police Station.

The Southern Region Police Spokesperson, Chief Superintendent Hubert Gashagaza, told The New Times in an interview that the quartet were caught red-handed ‘after breaking the door’ at BPR’s Kibirizi sub-branch, located in the rural Kibirizi Sector,  a few kilometres from Nyanza town.

A fifth suspect, who is believed to have been the local contact of the gang, went on the run for a few hours but was arrested on Friday shortly before noon, sources said. Police also recovered a Toyota Carina and other equipment, including a gas and oxygen bottles, a metal piece, carbide, gloves, matches and a plastic rope, that the suspects allegedly wanted to use to commit the robbery.

Sources told this paper that preliminary investigations show that the raid had been planned for over three months. But the police knew about it well before it was executed thanks to a tip off, CSP Gashagaza said.

Speaking from Busasamana Police Station, one of the suspects acknowledged having planned to burgle the bank but claimed that they changed their mind once they arrived. Though he constantly changed his stance and the role he played in the hatching of the robbery plan, the 46-year-old shop owner and father of three living in Kicukiro, Kigali, who is also believed to be the head of the gang, asked for forgiveness from the community.

The man had spent around Rwf 200,000 purchasing the equipment and hiring the vehicle which transported the quartet from Kigali to Kibirizi, sources said.