Ikorodu Robbery...The Sheer Ingenuity!

Consider a triangle ABC:
Let Point A be Ipakodo jetty,
Let Point B be Ikorodu Round About,
Let Point C be Ogolonto junction.
Visualize a Line AB running from Ipakodo Jetty to Ikorodu Roundabout through Ayangburen Road through Otunba TOS Benson Avenue onto Ikorodu roundabout.

Visualize a line AC running from Ipakodo Jetty to Ogolonto Junction.

Visualize a Line BC running from Ikorodu Round-About to Ogolonto junction. This is the base of our imaginary triangle.

Now, visualize yourself as a robber hoping to conduct a successful operation in Ikorodu.

One, you would be smart to fix your gaze on a soft target.

Two, your smartness would lead you to pick a bank branch that provides ease of access and escape.

Any bank outlet in Ipakodo...or along the Ogolonto-Ipakodo Road should fit into these unique requirements. And that is what these smart robbers did!

Other reasons:
There is a jetty at Ipakodo, thus ease of access and eventual escape by water! Yes! Through the lagoon route....as the marine corps of the Nigerian Police seems less efficient than the terrestrial corps.

The Ogolonto-Ipakodo Road is relatively new and highly motorable! It is relatively free and devoid of traffic gridlock, so your timings would not be jeopardized by unforeseen traffic problems!

Of course, you would have done several rehearsals prior to D-day to test your theories and test-run the whole gamut of your planned operation.

You know quite well that anything can go wrong with any operation however well planned. You obtain a map of the whole area and study the landmarks and general topography....noting especially the escape routes... and points and avenues of vulnerability... via which the police may lay an ambush on your team.

You run moot sessions and appoint a brainny member of your team to go straight into character and think and behave generally like a crack detective bent on cracking your crime.

You make plans for obtaining arms and ammunition in the most discreet manner. You make plans for obtaining your operational vehicles. Are you stealing them...and drawing unnecessary suspicion to yourselves? Are you buying them....or renting them? What amounts of weights would they be saddled with...before the operation and with the looted cargo after the job? Would the chassis be strong enough...or would there be any need for reinforcement?

Are you scraping off the engine and chasis numbers of such vehicles prior to the operation?

Are you planning to dump your operatiional vehicles after the job, make them your getaway vehicles... or blow them up?! Are you massing together after the job? Which is your best choice of location? An unobtrusive village in the middle of nowhere....or are you splitting immediately after?

You draw up a sketch of your movements....and generally confine yourself and your team to Line AC...the Ipakodo-Ogolonto Road....as you avoid lines AB and BC, the base of the triangle!

Now to gaining access inside the bank premises. Would you be requiring the collaboration and assistance of an insider to provide the building plans and general layout of the bank building and its appurtenances? The security network, CCTV and other audio and video recording equipment? Any infrared or other invisible rays? The security men...how many...how well trained...how brave....how resilient? Are you sparing them...or "taking them out"? Exact location of bank vault.

Use of aliases or ranks. Use of gloves...and face masks....

Are you blowing up security gates? Or even the concrete walls of the building? Would you be needing grenades?

The robbers blew up the walls of the bank building...as well as their operational vehicles... all three of them...all highly-priced SUVs.... Raced to the jetty. Hopped onto a waiting speed boat...probably with a spare boat in tow, spare fuel and probably spare engine.

Highly cerebral!
The type and class of exquisite plan you get from unemployed graduates.

Is our police department able to think out of the box....and match robbers for intellect?

Do they propound theories regarding motive, opportunity and wherewithal? Or are they fixated on arbitrary arrests, crude interrogation and torture of innocent persons to extract bogus confessions?

And lest I forget...
That operation was ably led and commanded by a lady!

Dr Tosin Akindele is a medical practitioner and public affairs analyst.