The case of armed robbery has been a tale for years.. beginning with the corrupt leaders robbing us of our rights….

First of all what's the cause of armed robbery? It's definitely unemployment. But I'm not here to write about unemployment but how the case of robbery did eat into our nation Nigeria…

Let's begin with the government; normally, the essence of the government is to help and develop the nation and also develop the youths but in my dear country, it's the other way round, where the masses pay taxes and yet we do not see what the taxes we pay are being used for not to talk of the lack of job opportunities for youths …..

Thus, The prevalence of armed robbery in Nigeria was fast becoming an epidemic thanks to the youths who refused to linger around but acquire some skills by going into learning some type of craft…

As at the time with which it was rampant,  it was being blamed on the dwindling economic fortunes of the majority and the widening gap between the affluent and the poor in our society leading to violent crimes especially armed robbery.  In Nigeria that time, no place was safe from the ravages of the armed robbers. They will attack homes, offices, shops, restaurants and churches to rob, rape, maim and kill. They operated at the banks with dynamites, strike at filling stations and swoop on victims at traffic jams. Armed robbers were no  longer operating only at night but also operated brazenly in broad daylight. Brigandage became the order of the day. The robbers would operate in large numbers sometimes as much as 20 persons with sophisticated arms and accessories that would facilitate their operation like gas cylinders, welding tools, hammer, powerful beam lights and explosives for blowing up safes. The robbers had expanded their armory to the use of biological materials including powder which they would blow to hypnotize and make their victims and security agents who might threaten them go to sleep while they carry out their operations.[1]

Hence, since the early 1970s, the incidence of armed robbery has been increasing at an accelerating rate in Nigerian cities. It is argued that widespread corruption at the most influential levels of national life encourages and provides the justification. The armed robber needs to choose, judge, and condemn his victims; and that the type of socio-economic order shapes in large part, the prevalence, magnitude, and seriousness of Nigeria's crime problem. In the same vein, the form, emphasis, and extent of success or failure of social control and crime prevention programmes are, in large part, functions of the operative order. The paper suggests that de-emphasising materialism as the prime value of society, together with the creation of a humane and disciplined society, may bring a reduction in armed robbery and related property offences [2]

An incident which was recorded on the 30th of June 2020 in Abeokuta stated that, the Ogun State Police Command had arrested three members of an armed robbery gang who escaped arrest when operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) stormed their hideout at the Adesan area of Mowe early this month.

The Command had raided the hideout on June 7, 2020 and arrested four suspects, while some other gang members fled.

A statement on June 6, 2020 by the spokesman of the Command, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said that following a manhunt for the fleeing "robbers", operatives of the Command succeeded in apprehending three more suspects.

"The suspects, Saheed Bello, who is the leader of the gang, and Bello Sadiq, were traced to the Academy area of Ibadan based on an investigation embarked upon by a SARS team led by Chief Superintendent Tijani Mohammed. "Their arrest led to the arrest of Ibrahim Rasheed, who is the gang's herbalist at Ile-Ogbo in Osun State. Recovered from them are one locally made single-barrel pistol and five live cartridges. The gang has been responsible for series of robbery cases around the Mowe/Ofada areas in recent times," Oyeyemi said.[3]

This situation coupled with some other inadequacies has earned the country several unsavory descriptions. Nigeria has been called a country in “descent into the dark,” a “country beset with insecurity across the land,” and a “failed state.” The Washington based Fund for Peace founded by Professor Susan Rice in its publication of the Failed State Index of 2009, placed Nigeria as among the 15 most vulnerable nations on the globe.[4]

References:

[1] ; Kajal A, "The police and armed robbers" in daily championship, posted on 5 January 2007

[2]; Abstract, Journal article by Stephen Ekpenyoung: British Journal of Criminology vol.29.No 1 Winter 1989

[3]; Daily Trust Abuja

[4]; Available at http://www.focusnigeria.com/war-againsrobbery.htm