'ARMY' ROBBERS INVADE 3 BANKS IN ONDO

THE relatively sedate scene of Ikare-Akoko in Ondo State was recently disrupted by composite and simultaneous armed robbery attacks on three banks which took the town by surprise as daredevil robbers, allegedly clad in army uniforms, shook the town to its foundations. According to media reports, the main road leading to the town where the banks’ branches are located were blocked by the robbers who had earlier sacked the police station on the street in order to ensure a smooth operation.
Apart from the huge heist which is yet to be estimated, the robbers also left a death toll of victims including policemen and other residents. The official figures of the victims are yet to be given but unofficial figures put the death toll at 11 including four policemen. Media reports also claimed that the incident had attracted the attention of both the Governor of the state, Dr Olusegun Mimiko and the state Police Commissioner, Isaac Eke to the town on an on-the-spot assessment of the dastardly act.

According to an eye witness report, the robbers had come in two vehicles painted in Nigerian army colours and had cordoned off the main street before shooting at the victims. The affected banks included the First Bank, Skye Bank and Ecobank on Jubilee Road, the commercial centre of the town.
Following the robberies, parents understandably refused to allow their children and wards to attend schools while social and commercial activities had to be put in abeyance for the fear of dear life. For three banks to be robbed simultaneously in a relatively sedate town like Ikare Akoko is to take the desperation of the men of the underworld to a higher notch and this has even been worsened by the bravado of using military colours and uniforms as an effective decoy.
Besides, policemen were part of the innocent victims wasted by the armed robbers in their desperation to get at the banks’ vaults. Although there is a theory that robbers usually have a short life span because sooner than later, their rings are busted through their errors and greed, the collateral damage in terms of death toll of innocent victims is usually intolerable as it impugns on the raison d’être of the government which has the duty to protect lives and property.
There can only be little doubt that the robbery and many like it was aided by the proliferation of arms which usually find their ways into wrong hands. This has been a perennial challenge to the country’s security agencies that have been unable to control or track down those behind their importation and unlicensed fabrication. It is even disconcerting that the level of sophistication of the weapons usually deployed in many of the crimes is beyond belief, especially in a country that claims to control arms.
Also disturbing is the expertise of these robbers in the use of these weapons as if they are trained snipers. It easily suggests that some wrong people have been accessing military training in the professional use of firearms to the detriment of the safety and security of the society. Except they have been trained, it would be impossible for these robbers to handle the weapons effectively and get desired results.

All these merely aggravated the plethora of social contradictions that aid crime of which Nigeria has abundance. Although there are no ideal or perfect societies without their own versions of criminalities, some societies are more predisposed to the risk factors such as inequitable distribution of wealth and lack of access to opportunities. Any society that is plagued by such processes cannot but suffer vicious and desperate crimes such as witnessed in Ikare-Akoko recently and which is trending in the country’s crime terrain.
For instance, earlier this year, there were reports in the media that the federal and many states governments owed their workers arrears of monthly salaries, an event which slowed the end-of year festivities down and had a multiplier effect on the economy. The general frustrations in the society caused by the contrived economic depression might have spurred the men of the underworld to embark on the misadventure upon which they hoped to survive the economic crunch.
Perhaps it is now imperative to have a new perspective on the security issues in the country beyond just equipping the security agencies. Issues such as youth unemployment, lack of access to opportunities for survival, the wide gap between the rich and the poor and the ostentatious lifestyles of the affluent should begin to engage policy makers in tackling the problem of security in the country.
If these issues are positively addressed, the crime rate and the desperation and viciousness which attend it will be significantly curbed, at least enough to return the country to relative peace and security.