WHEN we read stories of the type of bank robberies that take place in Ikorodu, the most recent was last week, one gets the impression that the security agencies have conceded that part of Nigeria to armed robbers. They could rob and depart without any hindrances. It should not be so.

Three months earlier, armed robbers hit a bank in Lekki, Lagos, and like the Ikorodu incidents, they departed by boat. The use of the sea by robbers is another angle to the tactics that they have resorted to in beating security agencies that are mostly lax and play parts that cast doubts on their commitment to the fight against crime.

It is not as if armed robbery does not take place in other parts of Nigeria, but Lekki and Ikorodu have the advantages of being more urbanised than those parts, and they have access to a huge pool of security agencies, who are well equipped and possibly motivated enough to stop the criminals.

Lagos State has billion of Naira in its security trust fund which it distributes in facilitating the work of the security agencies in the State. Is Ikorodu not part of their constituency? What are the other challenges that the security agencies are facing that they could not stop these robberies that look like acts taken out of television series?

Last week the robbers burnt their vehicles, an apparent ploy to ensure that they are not traced. We believe that a forensic examination of the vehicles could still produce materials that could be used in tracing the robbers. It is really worrisome that they had time to operate for almost two hours, called for a boat to facilitate their departure, without security agents stopping them. The closeness of a police station to the robbed banks makes the situation more troubling.

At times like these, pertinent questions that should be asked include how our police operate. What do the marine police do? What do the air police do? Why was it impossible in almost two hours to activate these police commands whose presence would have made the robbers’ escape difficult? Could the Navy not have been involved?

How many times more would these robberies occur before the police start working together? The investments in the police would be sheer waste if at times they should draw from specific resources to tackle situations they act helpless.

As robbers become more dramatic, the security agencies have to resort to measures that should warn criminals that they do not have more resources than the security agencies. What happened in Ikorodu should not happen anywhere again. The police should live up to their responsibilities to Nigerians.