LAST week, a friend was travelling from Oturkpo in Benue State to Lagos, in a Toyota Haice bus of a popular transport company.

At about 10 am, after the Lokoja bridge, along the Ajaokuta Road, at a place they call ‘Bus Stop’ in Okene, two armed men in army camouflage uniforms flagged down the bus to join others already parked by the road side. The men flagged down two other buses, and suddenly hell was let loose. Six other men came out of the bush, all carrying AK47 rifles. They shot randomly both into the air and in every direction. Two of the gun totting men boarded the buses, and led the four buses into a track road near a stream and stopped. They robbed every person and raped most of the women! They took money, phones, and anything that caught their fancy. It lasted for two hours after which they folded their guns into their pack bags, changed clothes and walked away.

This I understand is the story along that road daily. Commuters are robbed at least three times daily along this Ajaokuta- Okene Road. Other inter-state roads where commuters are daily robbed in this manner include Lokoja – Abaji Road, Lokoja-Okene Road, Ibilo-Akungba Road, Enugu-OboloAfor- Oturpka Road, to name a few.

There always are few police men lurking around these roads, carrying inferior fire power to that of the robbers, and the robbers know this. It will be suicidal therefore for the police to attempt to challenge this type of robbers. They are ruthless, well trained in their weapons handling, and despise our police; and we can’t just blame the police.

When a police man dies on active service his family gets a paltry sum of about N60,000, and that money never come ! So, why should a police man risk his life in a country like Nigeria? They buy their own uniforms, their barracks are not well maintained, and housing is grossly inadequate, they are poorly equipped and paid. They cramp up in offices like school children. The police officers themselves have not helped matters. Those who should know are so arrogant that one wonders where they came from. One must ‘mobilise’ them for results, thereby mortgaging their integrity seriously.

High way robberies and crime therefore continue to increase, exacerbated by policies that do not consider security implications before implementation.

The cashless policy of the CBN, which kicked off this month, means that we carry less cash. A good policy in itself, but about to be messed up by poorly thought out implementation plans.

First, Nigerians are not ready technologically to curtail the cyber crime that will follow this policy. It is not certain whether banks and the law enforcement planners have put adequate procedure and systems to cope with the volume of plastic frauds that will follow the cashless policy, which the developed world still struggle with. In order to cope, the police will need to recruit and train more persons for this specialised sector.

Second, the cashless policy means that people will not keep bulk money at home any more. Robbers would not want to gain access into a mansion, only to be confronted with ATM cards.

The implications are two fold: They will shift attention and emphasis to the high ways and target traders, who usually carry cash because most ATMs don’t work. Some traders carry cash for numerous reasons, including the fact that the CBN failed to educate various traders associations and groups on the meaning of the cashless policy.

Yes, some banks sent sms and emails on the policy and how it will run, but how many women in the markets read sms?

Our market women and traders are majorly not as educated as the Minister of Agriculture’s farmers who use cell phones to receive information on improved farming techniques and all that!

Most ATMs do not work, so people must carry cash and use same in transactions, thereby becoming more vulnerable on the roads or in transit from one point to another. The security demands of this new policy entail an increase in the man power and equipment at the disposal of our law enforcement agents.

Third, robbers will also start targeting businesses, bullion vans, and cash moving organisations, like super markets, big electronic marts, and gas stations, etc.

Area Commanders and their DPOs must also focus more on covering all such business premises in every town of this nation.

The security demands and challenges are enormous, the cost gargantuan, but that is what Nigeria must pay to be safe and for rushing into the cashless policy at a time like this.

If Nigeria is to be adequately protected from robberies, the government must have to make some hard choices: pay the high cost of security with necessary changes in the security delivery system, or allow the people carry guns! Nothing can be more dehumanising to lie faced down on a wet green grass, while some gun-carrying nonentities hold sway, or even worse, to watch helplessly while they rob and rape members of a man’s family!

While politicians, political office holders and even the corrupt among them get special police cover, others remain on their own. If Nigerians will not get protection, they should be allowed to own guns, at least pistols.

Our governments have so far failed to control the proliferation of small arms in the country. Niger Delta militants and Islamic jihadists have opened channels to bring in arms and military uniforms. Only last year a large consignment of military uniforms was intercepted by Customs, but nothing happened. If the rich and powerful sponsor violence, terrorism and robberies, Nigerians must be allowed to protect themselves.

Government should endeavour to apply the same zeal in security provision that we see during elections, on a continuous basis along all roads and cities of Nigeria.

Our citizens deserve round-the-clock security at their homes, offices/places of business and while they are on the move. The Federal Government should find the money to fund adequate security from the bloated security votes of governors.

Mr. CLEMENT UDEGBE, a legal practitioner, wrote from Lagos.