Anyone who had the job of protecting the people of Offa has failed

segun akande

April 8, 2018 9:21 PM

5 banks robbed, dozens dead, the people of Offa do not deserve to live like this.

This week, on Thursday, April 5, 2018, a gang of bandits robbed six banks in the town of Offa, and amassed a death toll that is estimated at anything between 12–41, depending on whichever you’re more disposed to believing: the Nigerian Police or news agencies.

Everyone, from an unnamed police officer to our ever-benevolent President has committed to bringing the killers to book. The police also have seven suspects in custody. And this has a feeling of too much talk coming too late.

One wonders if anyone in Offa has slept too well in the last couple of days.

Our flop of the week this year is the Nigerian condition, and more specifically anyone who was tasked with protecting the people of Offa, and the officers of the Special Anti-Robbery squad who went conspicuously missing while heavily armed men shot up a police station and fired sporadically through the town.

ALSO READ: The Offa robbery is proof that Nigerians are nit secure and it's a reality we are often reminded of

The audacity of the robbers was only possible because there was an obvious lack of security infrastructure either at the town’s main entry points or within the city centre.

We cannot discount the scale of what some have already labelled a terrorist attack (in a needless show of what I call 'CNN' syndrome), but the real issue is that even in one of those towns that we characterise as 'sleepy and quiet’, Nigerians are the mercy of anyone with guns.

The people whose job it was to protect the people of Offa have failed.

segun akande