Worried by the growing attacks on banks in Lagos State and determined to forestall further occurrences, the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Kayode Aderanti, have teamed up and handed over four sophisticated machine guns to operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Ikeja.
This was even as facts emerged that the Officer-in-Charge of Marine in Lagos State, a Chief Superintendent of Police, had been arrested and detained on the orders of Arase.
It was gathered that the OC Marine was nowhere to be found when the robbers unleashed hell at Ogolonto area of Ikorodu in Lagos State and escaped through the waterways.
Ironically, the machine guns are not from the stables of the Nigerian Police Force or supplied by the Federal Government as it ought to be.
Rather the machine guns are from a cache of sophisticated guns recovered from past robbery suspects.
A senior police officer said that would be first time that SARS detectives are given machines guns in the history of the NPF.
Arase and Aderanti brainstormed and arrived at this drastic decision after last week Wednesday’s bank robbery carried out on four banks at the Ogolonto area of Ikorodu.
Before the Ogolonto robberies, the same gang had robbed banks at Lekki and Ijede in Ikorodu.
In the Lekki robbery, they mowed down three policemen and a girl hawking fish.
Arase’s and Aderanti’s decision was further hinged on the fact that most of the SARS operatives sent to confront these bank robbers were actually being sent on a suicide mission.
The anti-robbery detectives are armed with AK47 rifles, while the bank robbers use hand grenades, explosives and machine guns.
A police source said: “SARS had never used machines guns before.
“Usually, it’s Marine Police that are given machine guns.
“They mount such guns on their boats.
“But on the day the bank robbers struck at Ogolonto, the Marine Police were called repeatedly by the Lagos CP, but he got no response.
“The OC Marine was nowhere to be found.
“The CP wanted them to use their boats to block waterways and possibly chase the bandits.
“On the fateful day of the robbery, policemen attached to the Rapid Response Squad raced to the scene in their Armoured Personnel Carriers, but many of them ran away when they saw the superior firearms of the bank robbers.”
Information further gathered has it that two of the machine guns had been deployed to Ikorodu and mounted at strategic points.
Over 15 plain cloth policemen, led an experienced Assistant Superintendent of Police, are always patrolling the waterways.
The ASP and his men had been ordered to be there for a month.
After that, another batch would relieve them.
Thus the circle would continue.
Aderanti has taken it upon himself to provide feeding for the policemen drafted to the area.
The two remaining machine guns are at a standby in case of any alert.
This was even as dozens of policemen had been deployed by Aderanti to follow the trail of the robbers before it goes cold.
A source said the trail has so far taken the policemen to the South West part of the country.
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