Joblessness responsible for sudden rise in armed robbery -CLO

By David Lawani, Abuja, and
Cajetan Mmuta, Awka

The recent surge in armed robbery activities have been attributed to a large-scale of unemployment rate in the country.

Commenting on this ugly development, the Founder/board chairman of the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, Comrade Emeka Umeagbalasi averred that the rate of unemployment in the country was alarming saying that something needed to be done urgently to reverse this dangerous trend among the youth in the country.

Umeagbalasi blamed this anomaly on negative government policy at all levels which is supposed to create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive thereby creating employment opportunities for the people.

Without good government coming up with good policies at all levels, you cannot create an enabling environment for business to thrive.

According to him, “if the government can liberalize trade policy, attract foreign investment. There will be job opportunities in the country for the youth. If the current government and the previous governments were able to solve security problems in Nigeria, that alone would have attracted a substantial number of foreign investors.

No investor would want to invest his hard-earned money in any environment where the safety of life and property is not guaranteed”.

He, however, expressed shock at the alarming rate of armed robbery activities and kidnapping across the country saying with the introduction of a cashless policy this kind of crime is supposed to decline rapidly.

“One wonders why armed robbery is on the increase in this era of cashless policy where the system has substantially reduced the movement of cash by a substantial percentage.

“Honestly, this call for a real concern because nobody can adduce any plausible reason behind the surge in this criminal activity in the country”, he expressed surprise.

He also called on the security operatives to improve their intelligence gathering to be able to win the war against armed robbery and kidnapping across the country.

“Aside from armed robbery, kidnapping is the order of the day now because there is so much money in it. It is even more lucrative than armed robbery.

“But if we have effective, competent, and intelligent security agencies these things would not be happening. These cases would have been checkmated long ago but because the law enforcing agents are busy on the road collecting money from innocent citizens while criminals are having a field day.”

“They are busy using the guns and uniforms we bought for them to terrorize innocent people, arrest people who have nothing to do with crime” he concluded.

*FG should intensify action to curb kidnapping, armed robbery

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Bello Olorunbe also corroborated the views of the first respondent.
According to him, “Factors contributing to this spike include high unemployment rates, pervasive corruption, and creating an environment where individuals may turn to crime as a means of survival. To address these challenges, a multi-faceted approach is crucial.

He continued: “Solutions should focus on creating employment opportunities to alleviate economic pressures, strengthening law enforcement agencies, improving intelligence gathering, and fostering collaboration between the government, community leaders, and citizens”, he noted.