High incidence of bank robbery and private security outfits

As banks continue to strengthen their efforts to curb bank robbery putting up series of measures, there still appears to be an opening often linked with information on cash lodgements to robbers. To this end, accusing fingers are most often pointed at some private security officers which this report by Saka Gbeminiyi & Gbenga Dasylva seek to unravel.

The dateline was April 15, 2008 and the venue was the Lagos State Police Headquarter, Ikeja. The then Commissioner of Police Alhaji S. Abubakar paraded some armed robbers who robbed a company in Ikeja.

According to the commissioner, the robbers”, stormed the company, an Aluminium Manufacturing Company at Ikeja Industrial Estate on April 30, 2008 when the workers were preparing to collect their March salary.

“The robbers struck and they were able to get the money they came for. However, they could not go far as men of the Lagos State Rapid Response Team on Patrol acted quickly and they pursued the robbers.

The team was lucky as it was able to get some of the robbers and their loot (money stolen) from the company. However, the timing of the robbery and the ease with which the armed robbers were able to break the security network of the company and had unrestricted access to the company’s account department made the police investigation team to smell a rat. They became suspicious about some of the personnel working in the company.

And true to the suspicion, the company’s Managing Director, an Indian, was taken aback when informed by the police that some of the security personnel working in the company gave vital information to the armed robbers about the company’s operations and that was why they (armed robbers) struck on the pay day to cart away the workers’ salary.

Paraded along with the armed robbers were three security guards attached to the company by private security organisationss. The Managing Director of the Aluminium company lamented that his company pays close to two million naira every month to the security outfit.

Speaking with reporters, he said the armed robbers had confessed that they got all the needed information that enhanced their operations from the security guards. The robbers also informed the reporter that the guards would have gone with 40 percent of the loot based on the sharing formula if the operation had not been frustrated by the police team. Also, one of the guards paraded blamed poverty and poor condition of service as factors that forced him to give his support to the gang when he was approached.

The commissioner of police warned corporate organisations to always do thorough investigation before engaging the services of any security outfit, stating that most security outfits have armed robbers as workers.

Another scenario was at Eleweran, Abeokuta, the Headquarter of the Ogun State Police Command where the former commissioner of police, Mr. Joseph Apapa paraded some armed robbers who stormed a company at Agbara Industrial Estate, Ogun State and carted away goods and other products worth millions of naira.

The commissioner had told journalists that the robbers stormed the company’s store and took away all the raw materials procured the previous day by the company. However, the armed robbers could not go far as they were intercepted by stop and search team of the Ogun State Police Command. The stop and search team became suspicious when the drivers and others with him could not produce any of the document demanded by the police team.

The matter became worrisome, when the robbers in an attempt to escape opened fire on the police. The police overpowered them and they were brought to the police Headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta Ogun State.

The former commissioner had told journalist while parading the robbers that the timing of the operation (a day after the company took delivery of raw materials) arouse suspicion. Again the fact that the armed robbers came with a truck to load the materials was also questionable. Although he said the security guards on duty at the time of the armed robbery operations were tied together with a rope and had some bruises all over their bodies to suggest that they put up some resistance when the robbers came, he said the police was not convinced that the security guards were innocent.

And expectedly, he said the armed robbers confessed that the security men attached to the company gave all the necessary details to enhance the operations. He also told journalist that the idea of beating the security guards was a play to distract the police attention during investigation. But unfortunately the police did not fall for the plan.

The two aforementioned incidents bring to fore the roles of security guards hired by companies in cases of armed robbery attacks on the companies they are paid to protect.
A police source in Lagos told Sunday Tribune that most security guards now play Judas by supplying vital information to armed robbers who later launch attacks on the company.

“Most of the attacks on companies are usually carried out with the help of insiders. The alleged insiders in most cases are security guards hired by companies from corporate security outfits to protect the companies. The involvement of these security personnel in cases of armed robbery has called to question the role of government in regulating the activities of the outfits’’.

Sunday Tribune learnt that the Nigeria Security and Defence Corps is constitutionaly charged with the responsibility of regulating the activities of the security outfits. The Oyo State commandant of the corps, Commander Amos Musa Andekin told Sunday Tribune that “The corps are in charge of private security guards; our duty is to ensure that they are fully registered. We also monitor and supervise their activities and ensure that they are registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).”

“Although, it requires that for any security outfit to be registered and allow to operate, such outfit must meet certain standard, the situation on ground is that most of them are not registered with the appropriate government agency.”

“The situation is that the poor state of the nation’s economy is forcing many people to form security company without following laid down procedures. These mushroom security outfits end up employing people of doubtful characters as security personnel.” A security consultant, Engineer Tayo Oyafemi lamented that most security outfits don’t follow laid down standard while employing security personnel.

“Security is a very sensitive job, but most outfits just employ retired this, retired that without finding out the performance of the retired police or retired soldiers while in service, hence they end up recruiting some criminals dismissed from service as security guards”.

For security outfits to be up and doing, Engr. Oyafemi stated that the regulating body, NSCDC must take a census of all the existing security outfits operating in the country with the aim of flushing out the illegal ones. He lamented that the present system whereby every Jack and Harry open security outfit with the aim of making money should be re-examined.

The security consultant also blamed poor remuneration as the factors responsible for why some of the security personnel connive with criminal to rob the companies they are paid to protect by supplying vital information to vandals. “ Some of there security outfits only exploit their staff. They collect millions of naira from corporate organisations they service, but they give peanuts to guards sent out to man companies, hence some of the guards are not dedicated. “

Speaking on the relationship between police and security outfits, the Police Public Relations Officer for Ogun State Police Command, Mr. Femi Awoyale told Sunday Tribune that the police has little or nothing to do with the security outfits.

He explained that the only working relationship the police have with them is only when they (security outfits) organise seminar, workshop or training programmes for their staff and police are invited to deliver paper or organize training for their personnel. “We don’t have much to do with them. The NSCDC is the body responsible for regulating the operations and activities of the security outfits.

In terms of numbers, the crime problem in Nigeria is to an extent primarily a problem of armed robbery. Going by the media reports on the general crime situation, and public concerns, armed robbery seems to constitute the greatest number of criminal law violation. Bank robbery has been on the increase. Bank robbery today is now a common phenonmenon and it has become a frequent crime now in every commercial city. This is not to say that the smaller towns are spared. Bank robbery has continued to cause distress in the lives of many Nigerians.

The current trend of armed robbery is as a result of Nigeria’s past economic and political experience. Besides being capitalist oriented, contemporary Nigeria has transited and oscillated greatly between the periods of economic success and distress, chaos and interim social cohesion. The accompanying consequences have been economic brigandage and social mayhem. Crime is climbing because of joblessness, particularly among young school leavers. Politically motivated pen robbery is still with us. Economically induced robberies are on the rise too. Banks are now robbed in broad day light. You cannot open your favorite daily any morning without reading about a robbery incident here and there. Because it is not an election season, assassinations are on the wane - it looks like these amorphous changes have created a social milieu under which bank robberies thrive. Among the general public, greater number of them are simply fascinated by these high incidence of bank robberies so they are glued to the news media to capture ‘the gory gist of reported armed robbery. The bank will be the last place anybody would expect the robbers to attack.

While some said the reason can be attributed to the non-availability of money in circulation, others are simply alarmed by the scourge, sometimes in a perverse romanticized manner, most times with a sense of fear. The resultant questions thus are: when shall the trouble of armed robbery been brought under control? What are the banks doing? What is the government doing?

Citizens have simply become disillusioned with the authority’s approach to the menace. Efforts from the banks with their private securities have yielded nothing. Police and these other security officials have become excessively repressive on innocent and law abiding citizen in banks even sometimes selfishly sensationalizing the pervasiveness of the crime. Notwithstanding, bank robberies continue to be on the increase.

Fingers as analysed earlier point to the independent security outfits as culprits in cases of bank robberies. This is more reinforced by the fact that most of them are not registered in anyway to allow them operate. They operate to make money. Another security expert, while speaking to Sunday Tribune says “Even if a security program wasn’t required by regulation, initiating and maintaining an effective one just makes good business sense,” suggests that a bank’s security program should combine procedural security techniques with physical ones to protect and defend against real or anticipated threats. Threats to a bank exist in many forms. Banks don’t have a choice. They are mandated by law to appoint a security officer. He feels that this position should be taken more seriously in banks of all sizes. He points out that the position is often an add-on to an otherwise full plate of an employee. That employee may not be given the training, authority or tools needed to effectively perform the duties associated with such a critical role.

The wave of armed robbery varies in concentration, and in sophistry, among banks in towns, cities, villages or semi-towns. There is the need for the banks to match up, but these are organized crimes that seems to have defied possible solution. In the past, armed robbery followed a predictable and conventional pattern or upward and downward trends. They lie low when the heat against them is high. In recent times, the trend is that it upsurges, daring and brutal when government intensifies action. Banks receive attack simultaneously now and in quick succession.

So far, the number of security operatives that have lost their lives, or get maimed and rendered useless are on the high side.

Government and banks have however not left the problem unattended to. Armoured vehicles now convey money from point to point; government has empowered the police in order to be able to combat these criminals in gun battles. There are special anti-robbery squads made up of people drawn from conventional police, mobile police, and the military force. The private security outfits have been compelled to register as it really ought to be. Some banks have as a result been compelled to register their security arm as well.

Part of these efforts is the distribution of the Automated T Machine (ATM). The ATM has made it easier for citizens to get money without having to get to the bank, though it has not ruled out the possibility of customers being traced from banks. The question now is whether the security operatives in banks are innocent? Can we count these private security outfits out of the problem people encounter with robbers in banks? It is belived that some of these men tip the robbers off. Since it is believed that they know how much is in circulation in the banking hall, it is possible that they have an edge of information over some bankers in the bank. The truth must be said that most bank robberies occur as a result of a mole within the bank system. It has accounted as most respondents to Sunday Tribune believe, for most of the successes recorded by the robbers.