Desperadoes On The Loose

The season when crime spirals out of control is here again. This is the period desperadoes go to any length to amass wealth to celebrate Christmas and the New Year. Already, the wave of crime has escalated across the country and security agencies must brace up and be a step ahead of these daring criminals on the loose.

But for divine intervention, a 10-year-old banana hawker would have become a victim of money making ritualists who lured her into a building site and hid her in an unused refrigerator in Calabar, Cross River State. If not that someone saw the girl enter the premises and called other people’s attention, the girl’s fate might have been sealed on Tuesday this week by her abductors, one of whom is now in police net. Criminals are so desperate that they brazenly blow up bank vaults with dynamite and cart away millions of naira. Yesterday, robbers shot and killed a police inspector, a Corporal and another policeman at Oshodi area of Lagos. Robbers even have the effrontery to attack police stations and seize guns and ammunition from the policemen.

Everyone tries to show off the latest automobile acquired during festive period such as Christmas and the New Year and those who do not have the means to own these expensive SUVs but want to measure up to their peers resort to all kinds of despicable activities like armed robbery, kidnapping and even engaging in human sacrifice for money making.

The essence of Christmas goes beyond the cosmetic display of ostentatious lifestyle or primitive acquisition of wealth through dubious means. This fact is always lost on criminals who do not mind taking other people’s lives in their inordinate quest to celebrate the festive period in a grand style. It is time the society questioned people about how they came about their sudden, new-found wealth once they begin to live beyond their means. This could help check the increasing crime wave in our society.

This period calls for vigilance by everybody to avoid falling victims of armed robbers, ritual killers, kidnappers, 419ers and other shady characters now on the prowl. Security is everybody’s business. So we must heed this wake up call to nip crime in the bud.

We reiterate that security agencies must go the extra mile this period which records the highest crime rate during the year.