Bank Robbery on the Rise (South West Nigeria)
Armed robbery and other criminal activities appear to be permanent features of our modern society. As socio-economic conditions in the country remain dire, criminal elements take advantage of the poorly equipped law enforcement agencies, by attacking individuals and businesses.
Bank robbery seem to be on a frightening rise in Nigeria with at least four major bank robberies reported in 2018.
While bank robberies have reduced in Lagos state albeit as a result of measures put in place to curb crime in the state, there has been a spike in attacks in other South-Western states. Notable bank robberies in South 2018 include;
- Kwara — April 5 :- Several police officers, residents and bank customers, were killed after armed gunmen stormed about five banks in Offa and a police station in the Offa Local Government Area of Kwara State
- Edo — August 9 :- Six people including three armed robbers were killed late Thursday when armed robbers attacked a commercial bank and a police station in Igara, headquarters of Akoko-Edo LGA of Edo State
- Ekiti — September 19 :- A group of armed robbers attacked a branch of Union Bank of Nigeria and killed one person in the process.
The most recent incident occurred on 19th November in Ijero Ekiti, Ekiti State, where armed robbers attacked a bank and a nearby police station. The assailants reportedly invaded the community through Aramoko Road in an ambulance with a casket filled with weapons and escaped through the same route in a robbery that lasted an hour.
While each attack occurred at different periods, trend analysis shows that all the attacks followed almost similar patterns.
- The attacks were well orchestrated with assailants arriving in large numbers. The assailants often split themselves with a group mandated to attack the nearest police station, apparently to prevent the police from responding to possible distress calls from the bank.
- The assailants also used dynamites to gain entry to the banks.
- The robberies occurred between 1600hrs and 1800hrs with little resistance from security officers.
- The attack wasn’t spontaneous especially since all attacks lasted for close to an hour. It is also believed that the assailants had a proper surveillance of the locations or a presence of an informant. It shows the low quality of intelligence in the Police force. (Poor Intel gathering)
SECURITY RESPONSE
To deal with crime in a holistic manner, there is a need to address several challenges in the security force. There is a need to redesign the security architecture to meet current security challenges in the country.
This brings about these questions;
- What is the recruitment process for the police force?
- Are there training available for the force?
- How prepared are they in terms of security?
- Are the security personnel motivated to do the job of policing?
WHAT TO DO
- There is a need to reduce chances of robbery through incorporation of technology. CCTV should be installed in and around finance institutions.
- There is a need for inter-agency coordination to promote info sharing.
- The Police needs to find better ways of gathering intelligence with a SWOT analysis of each police station/post done to identify immediate and remote threats. The weaknesses should be fixed, threats identified ahead of time and properly addressed.
THE BANK HAS A ROLE TO PLAY
There is a need for banks to make use of trained security personnel and specialized equipment (e.g man traps) to mitigate or deter robberies. It is also necessary for banks to employ surveillance activities (CCTVs), internal intelligence gathering system and access control within the banking system.
There is no indication that the robbery will subside especially with previous trends showing an uptick in armed robberies in November and December. There is a known correlation between crime and festive seasons.
It is however important to note that security is a collective effort. There is a need for cooperation between the private citizens and the police