SOCIOECONOMIC IMPLICATION OF ARMED ROBBERY IN ABASAND TOWN, NKIKOKA LGA, ANAMBRA STATE.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
In Africa, high crime levels have been said to be common to countries in transition from authoritarian to democratic rule, and this is reflected in the persistently high level of crime in countries like South Africa. Official Police statistics for 1997 reveal a frightening high number of violent crimes where 25,000 people were murdered in 1996. This reflects a rate ten times the international average. Reported house breaking in private houses stood at
250,000, while on the average a car was stolen at gunpoint, every five seconds (Maltzan, 1998). Crime therefore reflects not only the values of the criminals but also those of the society as a whole.Crime rates and types are alsounevenly spread across cities and regions and between countries. Some cities, regions or countries may experience rapid increase in crime particularly crime of violence while others do not.
It could be argued that, most data on crime reflect only those recorded by the police, and that the extent to which the police record crime is difficult to measure. The level and types of crime are also the result of a range of local, national, and regional factors including cultural beliefs, political and economic instability, the quality of policing, and the availability of guns or other weapons. In Africa, a violent crime that has been of interest to scholars has been the incidents of contemporary armed robbery which has been observed to be prevalent in the horn of Africa (Mburu, 1999).
Nigeria, like any other African country has been experiencing various forms of violent crimes such as ethnic conflicts, rape, armed robbery, assault, murder and kidnapping. At the end ofcivil wars there is usually mass abandonment of the fighting zones which results in various types of weapons finding their way into the hands of people who may ultimately use them for criminal activities, as have been the case when the Nigerian civil war ended on January 15, 1970. During this period, it was generally expected that armed robbery which was the phenomenon of concern as at then, would be confined to the Eastern states of Nigeria, but this was not so because cases of armed robbery were reported from all parts of Nigeria. It was further observed that though armed robbery has existed in Nigeria for centuries, the civil war accelerated its incidence (Nkpa, 1976).
A specie of armed robbery that has been of national concern in Nigeria is armed robbery. Nigeria’s North- East borders have been bedeviled by frequent incidents of armed robbery popularly referred to as “Kwanta-Kwanta” (meaning lie down, lie down) and illegal incursion from conflict torn neighbors such as Chad, Niger and Cameroon. Cattle are being stolen by armed robbers locally referred to as ‘Udawa’. According to a report by the
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (1999)
There is growing concern in parts of Northern Nigeria over insecurity caused by robbers suspected to have come from neighbouring countries. Scores of people have been killed and many robbed of valuables in the past years by bands of heavily armed gunmen identified as remnants of rebel forces from years of civil war in Chad and by militant herdsmen known locally as ‘Udawa’, and said to come from Niger.
While Nigeria tries to cope with tensions generated by diversity of its population, struggle for economic independence, defense of its territorial integrity and against organized armed robbery, it is faced with problems of various instabilities within neighbouring countries forcing their people and members of their armed forces to troop into Nigeria from various points across the porous borders. Most of these people have been alleged to be the brains behind the numerous armed robbery incidents in the Northeastern region of Nigeria (Gubio, 1977). What then are those factors that encourage these foreign robbers to operate in Nigeria?While it may beattributed it to the relative ease with which foreign rebels move in and out of Nigerian territory (International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, 2000:269), it could also be the thickly forested strip along the borders with neighboring Franco-phone countries (Onah, 2010).Proximity to conflict zones as well aseasy availability of weapons constitute another factor (United Nation’s Small Arms Survey 2004:194; Bobbo 1999:19) while other factors could be rising poverty, high unemployment and the breakdown of traditional social control structures (Defending Human Rights report,2005:2). The implication here is that, a combination of factors can be said to encourage the robbers to operate within Nigerian territory.
Going by media reports on the general crime situation and the public concern in Northeastern Nigeria, armed robbery constitutes one of the greatest problems in terms of violation of criminal law. Besides being one of the most frequent anddreadful crimes in contemporary Nigeria, armed robberyhave continued to cause distress among residents, individuals and communities of this region.
A news item in the Vanguard Newspaper of August 7, 2007:5 reported that,
Armed robbers numbering about 40, weekend held hostage the residents of Namtari town in Yola – South Local Government Area of Anambra State. The head of the vigilante group in the town, one Mallam Bappaji and his entire family were murdered by the rampaging robbers. According to the spokesman of the Anambra State Police Command, Bilyamu Bello (ASP), the gunmen held the entire town hostage for over three hours. He said the robbers raided the village undisturbed for hours after blocking all roads into and out of the town.
A gang of robbers taking cover in the forest around the border with Cameroon have also been terrorizing the people of Sorau and Belel in Maiha Local Government Area. The robbers rob travelers, raid villages and kidnap people. They also demand huge sums of money particularly from Fulani herdsmen after kidnapping their relations (Daily Trust Newspaper of October 17, 2008:7). It is to be noted however that, even though these mass media reports may be sensational, episodic and exaggerated in nature, they nevertheless show that there is a problem of armed robbery, which this study intends to unravel.
Notwithstanding the severity and seriousness of such attacks, Nigerian border law enforcement agents are usually ill-equipped to effectively police the numerous illegal entry points through which these criminals who are vey familiar with the terrain pass easily through undetected. Furthermore, the Nigerian law enforcement agents are also outnumbered by these armed robbers whenever the robbers choose to operate (Bobbo, 1999).A major source of concern is also that, the police appear to be getting overwhelmed by the phenomenon of armed robbery and that the criminals appear to be ahead of the police such that the police largely now only react usually after the offenders might have left the scene (Olujinmi, 2005:9).
The mode of operation of the robbers could constitute an obstacle to preventive measures that could have been put in place by the law enforcement agents. This is because these robbersengage in one-time raids and follow a ‘nomadic’ (or slash and burn) form of appropriation. Once the territory covered by the robbers expands so that they incur high travel costs, they find it economically advantageous to form a rebel government where looting is converted to taxation. Instead of the anxiety of random looting, people suffer the certainty of steady taxation (Muggar and Brauer (2004:26).
