When the late Afro Beat music maestro, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, sang, Lo jo Monday, Eko o ni gba ’gba ku’gba o, he was reinforcing the didactic Yoruba worldview which promotes hard work over slothfulness. Monday, to the average Nigerian, is the first working day of the week.
Nigerian employers and employees attach so much importance to the day with many holding the age-long belief that when someone has bad luck on Monday, ill luck will be the lot of such a person all through the week! Ironically, the pattern of bank robbery in some states of the South-West has revealed that armed robbers now attack banks mostly on Mondays.
The attacks are also between the hours of 9am and 11am. Like all society-changing mores, the symbolism which glorifies and typifies Monday with hard work appears to be undermined by the rising bank robberies phenomenon across the country.
The list of bank robberies occurring on Monday within and outside Osun State is curiously endless: An attack by armed robbers on two banks in Ile-Ife at 10am, on Monday December 15, 2008, left about 10 persons dead and over 40 persons injured.
In the Ile-Ife robbery, two madmen were killed by the rampaging daredevils, who also shot dead an herbalist that chanted incantations to disarm them. Earlier in the year, on Monday, February 12, 2008, to be precise, armed robbers, at 2am, stormed the Development Support Centre in Iyangaku, Ibadan, Oyo State, where they attacked officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and over 40 local and foreign journalists, who were attending a training programme organised by the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Journalism.
Police investigation showed that the robbers, after the operation in Ibadan, left for Ilesa, Osun State, where they attacked the Ilesa branch of WEMA Bank at 10am. In the Ilesa attack, no fewer than five persons were killed and several others injured. An identity card belonging to a participant in the Ibadan programme was found in the residence where the robbers holed up in Ijebu-Jesa before storming WEMA Bank.
In Agindingbi area of Lagos State, armed robbers, on Monday, September 1, 2008, around 10:30am, raided Spring Bank branch, and carted away an undisclosed amount of money.
On Monday, April 31, 2008, a robbery gang that included two women reportedly attacked the Union Bank and United Bank for Africa branches in Badagry, Lagos State between 10am and 11am.
No fewer than two persons lost their lives in the attack. Monday robbery attacks are not limited to banks – four suspected armed robbers were shot dead, on Monday, April 22, 2008, when trying to rob a passenger bus along Iwo – Ejigbo Road just as two other suspects were killed during an attack on No 22, Keffi Road, Obalende in Lagos State on the same date. A bank was robbed on Monday, August 26, 2008, at Amuwo-Odofin in Lagos between 9am and 10am.
In the Amuwo-Odofin attack, four of the robbery suspects were killed, while five others were arrested. However, two armed robberies occurred between 9am and 11am in Ipetu-Modu and Ijebu-Jesa communities of Osun State on Tuesday, October 9, 2007.
Another robbery attack occurred at Unity Bank, Osogbo, at 10am on Tuesday, July 22, 2008, in which N58m was carted away by the bandits.
Many theories have been adduced for robbers’ choice of Mondays as payday. The Police Public Relations Officer, Osun State Command, Mr. Joshua Olayemi, said police investigations into bank robberies in the state had established collusion between bank workers and robbery gangs.
He said, “Police have established collusion between insiders in the bank and armed robbery gangs. Banks should change their orientation and mode of operation. Banks don’t have to bring in workers’ salaries on Friday. They don’t have to bring in large amount of cash over the weekend because investigations have shown that some bank insiders inform armed robbery gangs that money is in the vault over the weekend. We have mapped out plans to break the jinx.”
Another top police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said armed robbers might have decided to make early Monday mornings their target period because banks were usually busy on Mondays. He said, “Businesses take the money they make over the weekend to the banks on Mondays. People rush to the banks to collect money on Mondays, having exhausted their coffers over the weekend.
“You will agree that banks are likely to have more money on Mondays. Maybe this is why armed robbers are now targeting banks on Mondays. Mr. Femi Adefila, who is the Media Assistant to Osun State Deputy Governor, Mrs. Olusola Obada, urged the police to look into the phenomenon, saying it could lead to a major breakthrough.
Analysts are of the view that the reasons for the rise in armed robberies across the country are not far-fetched. They observe that a fast growing jobless and disgruntled population of youths, who are bereft of societal ideals cannot do anything better in the face of stolen opulence daily flung at their faces by a mindless and thieving political class.
One of them who craved anonymity said, “Many ex-governors and top government officials indicted of fraud under the watch of the Olusegun Obasanjo administration are today pontificating on justice and corruption.
