I recalled and vividly when l wrote a request letter to the former Inspector-General of police,Alhaji lbrahim Coomassoe whose tenure was bedeviled by noticeable activities of vicious armed and notorious robbers around the country and outside the country neighborhood. My humble request was for him to grant me the permission and approval as the Assistant Crime News Editor of the now rested The National Concord , a daily publication of the Concord group of newspapers published by the late Bashorun M K O Abiola. Indeed, my request was granted and before then ,l was the only journalist present , when the notorious and vicious armed robber, Lawrence Anini who was arrested by a gallant police officer, Kayode Oniororo , was marched before Mr parry Osayande who was then a police Commissioner based in Cross River state but on secondment on lGP s operational assignment to coordinate the arrest of Anini and his group of vicious gang operating in Benin city which is the hometown of Mr Osayande. I was invited from my base in Cross rivers State where l was the state Editor. However, upon the approval of the IGP I was advised to make myself available at the special anti robbery squad ( SARS) ikeja, Lagos and at other SARS offices around the country ,conducting exclusive interviews with arrested notorious armed robbers.
In all, l interviewed over three scores of robbers . (See my second book , “Titled Dark clouds : Confessions of notorious armed robbers in Nigeria”) . Interestingly , l noticed that the same spirit operating inside these armed robbers, is the same spirit operating inside the present day terrorists, bandits and even mauraders and devilish criminals. According to Christian the holy book, the Bible, among the attributes of evil spirit , is to kill, steal and to destroy . So one can see a close link between terrorists and armed robbers of yesteryears and the present day terrorist that recently invaded many communities in Plateau state and other neighbouring states like Benue, zamfara, taraba, Nasarawa and Kaduna states shedding blood of hundreds of innocent and harmless citizens. The idiosyncrasy identified with armed robbers of bygone years are the same with terrorists of today.
They live and enjoy hard drugs, among the drugs frequently used by them is marijuana. They are hardened criminals and are heartless and fearless. They don’t blink an eye before they shed innocent blood,. They are destroyers of anything that impedes or forms an obstacle on their way of operation. They steal even from those they have killed.
They are demon pocessed and they think always of evil ,even when they are among themselves .
Infact the spirit of envy and wickedness always propel them into evil acts against one another other and innocent members of the public. They think nothing except how to commit evil and wickedness. Infact their modus of operandi are always in the dark because they are pocessed by the evil spirit that usually operate at night . These vandals and bandits in recent weeks, have killed over a hundred innocent villagers ,destroying their properties and stealing their belongings. Many security observers had described the mayhem as gross act of human wickedness and the relevant question is, where were the security personels drafted and serving their security agencies in Benue and Plateau states. How can security personels from the military, police, DSS and Civil DEFENCE be present in these states and there was no iota of intelligence information about these dastardly operations. What had happened to grassroots intelligence informants who camourflage as transporters , motorcycle riders and other group of public informants?. This is a clear decay of intelligence gathering and failure on the part of security leaders in the state ,from the governors to these afore mentioned security leaders who are still allowed to continue to warm their exalted security chairs. When the police was what it used to be, the lnspector- General of police would have recalled the state commissioners and replace them with more serious officers who are better focused and dedicated to their posting. It is such laikaidestical attitude that continue to derail the efficiency of the agency. Afterall, they are there to ensure the constitutional mandate of ensuring the safety and protectin of unarmed innocent villagers of Benue and Plateau states and their properties. How would a hefty man feel ,watching another man plunder into his home and openly assault his wife and kill her with the children ,just because he is not armed and the law of the land abhors his carrying a gun. Yet, those being paid with his hard earned tax ,whom the constitution empowered to carry gun on his behalf ,look elsewhere. Bandits boldly plunder homes and villages without any repercautionary measures from the government or security leaders in Abuja where everything is controlled from.
This is sad. Since the lunch of the book on armed robbers in 2002, with sir Mike Okiros book,“Policing Nigeria in democracy” wherein, he advised banking institutions on how to defend the bank branches across the country. It was observed that robbery activities drastically reduced across the country and Nigerians started heaving a sign of relief from dare devil robbers operating in homes, highways and in the cities where banking activities were prominent .
Psychologist would tell you for free that exposing criminals by publishing their activities including their photographs has great effect in reducing their activities because , nobody who is into criminal activities wants his or her photograph published and associated with criminality of any sort ,not even house thief or street harlots, such deters them from perpetrating evil. So, one therefore is surprised about this penchat from the military for persistently organize armnesty lessons for terrorists and bandits. Maybe the activities of these devilish herdsmen who are killing and displaying villagers in Kaduna, zamfara, Nasarawa , Benue and Plataeu States should not be published with the new move of the military who is granting them amnesty. What next shall we be expecting, since those who shed innocent blood are easily and out rightly forgiven and certificate of amnesty freely issued to them signalling that the confessed terrorists are officially pardoned.This therefore presupposes that every pen robber accused and being prosecuted for corruption , should for God sake be forgiven afterall we had just come out of the biblical narrative that Jesus had borne all sins including corrupt criminals. What a way of chatting a new way for up coming generation.