Claim: Speaking at the 18th Annual Town Hall Meeting on Security organised by the Lagos State Security Trust Fund on Thursday, the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, said Lagos State has recorded only one successful bank robbery since 2007.
“There was a time that armed robbery and bank robbery were common in Lagos. But I can recall that since 2007 till date, only one bank robbery succeeded in Lagos, and that was as far back as 2014. So, the days of armed robbery and bank robbery are gone,” the IG said.
Findings
Science Direct defines armed robbery as the act of forcefully taking valuable items or money from a place using weapons or the threat of violence
In analysing armed robbery incidents, SciD noted that if the robbers had not carried out the offence and made away with any property before the police arrived at the crime scene, the event would be rated as an attempted robbery and not scored at all within the index of crime severity.
The IG claimed that since 2007 till date, only one armed robbery incident had been successful in Lagos and that the last one occurred in 2014.
But an analysis of reports by The PUNCH and Vanguard revealed that since 2015, there had been no fewer than five successful bank robberies in the state.
In the entire incident, the robbers carted away millions of naira, killed several policemen and many other persons.
The first occurred on March 12, 2015, when a gang of robbers attacked a branch of First City Monument Bank in the Lekki area of Lagos, killing three policemen and two civilians before making away with an undisclosed sum of money.
The second incident took place in June of the same year when a heavily armed gang attacked two commercial banks in Ikorodu and overran the Area N Police Command Headquarters and its police division in the Ijede-Ikorodu area of the state.
Reports from multiple national newspapers revealed that the robbers, armed with AK-47 rifles and clad in military camouflage, simultaneously attacked the police formations and banks.
On October 14, 2015, a group of about 40 armed robbers stormed two banks on 4th Avenue, FESTAC Town, Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area. The gang carted away an unspecified amount of money.
The gunmen gained access to the banks through a canal, using speedboats and began shooting sporadically, injuring several residents. During the operation, which lasted for several hours, a two-year-old toddler, Mmesoma Ndirika, and her mother, Jane, who were inside their apartment in a nearby building, were hit by stray bullets.
On November 13, 2020, PUNCH Metro reported that armed robbers attacked a bullion van on Ado Road in the Ajah area of Lagos State, killing one person and making away with a substantial amount of money.
Similarly, six days afterward, about 45 members of a robbery gang stormed two banks in Agbara. They attacked a Zenith Bank branch on Bank Road, killed two guards, and shot a pregnant woman.
The robbers penetrated the vicinity through boats and used dynamite to destroy the security entrance gates after which they gained entry into the banks.
However, the police at different times arrested some of the robbers, who were paraded before the press before their arraignment in a court of competent jurisdiction.