Like every other Friday, Muslim worshippers had just returned from the mosque on February 12, 2016. Businesses were about to start bubbling again when armed robbers visited Ikirun, Osun State, with sporadic gunshots.
Three commercial banks: Union, First, and Skye (now Polaris) Bank in the town were attacked at a go. The banks operated on the same street.
Ikirun is arguably the economic hub of an entire federal constituency comprising Ifelodun, Boripe, and Odo-Otin LGAs. The town is a 16-minute drive from the state capital city, Osogbo, and has over 100,000 population as of 2015.
For about six years after the incident, no commercial bank operated in the town. And because of its economic disadvantages, the scars still hurt like fresh wounds.
Like some residents in the town, Tope Adegoke has lost hope of seeing commercial banks return to his place of birth. “The robbers have crippled Ikirun completely. They (banks) are not coming back, they’re just deceiving us,” he lamented in Yoruba language with countenance detailing nothing but of hope already lost.
Adegoke was an eye-witness to the 2016 robbery attack. His office was located on the road but by luck, he escaped being killed in cold blood with many people, including police officers and bank officials that were shot dead by the gun-wielding robbers.
Voluntarily, Adegoke controls traffic at a junction separating Skye and First banks – both on the opposite sides of the same road leading to Ekoinde junction in Ikirun.
Three Commercial banks robbed at a go
Till date, security officers at non-operational Skye Bank in Ikirun still come to work. Mr. Segun Adeleke, a Skye Bank security man in his account of the incident, explained how the well-coordinated attack all happened for the last time.
Mr. Adeleke said the robbers moved freely from one bank to the other. “It was God’s mercy we received, as a security [personnel],” he said, reminiscing that his life flashed before his eyes. “Two of our counter officers were killed,” he noted.
However, despite being closed down for six years, Adegoke and his colleague still get their salaries. “The three banks did not close [down] at the same time. Union Bank still operated for like three or six months after the attack but later closed down.
“As for Polaris, I’ve no idea whether they are coming back,” he hinted.
The impact of the robbery attacks and subsequent year-long absence of banking institutions, as lamented by Adegoke, has crippled the town and those in its vicinity, economically.
“It has a great impact on our people. Business is not going as was supposed again. It’s not even going well at all.
“Because, when these banks were still operating, money withdrawn was mostly spent within the town. But when there is no bank again, people buy things where they now withdraw. The economy has been destabilized completely,” he added.
For Iyabo Owolabi, the impact of the robbery attack was not less harsh on her business. As a fashion designer and seller of cotton materials with a shop directly opposite Union Bank, she said, “when people come to the bank, especially students, they will come to us and pick one or two materials and tell us to sew it, pending their returns from banks or withdrawal from the ATM.”
Iyabo lamented that such experience went away with the absence of the bank.
“Business was still doing fine when the banks were here. But now, we’re just enduring. You know, saving or withdrawing like #200,000 from the POS, they will collect their own charges unlike going into the bank directly,” she added.
Owolabi lamented that not only has it affected her business, it has affected her personally. According to her, getting banking issues rectified is not as easy as it was before the robbery. “Just last week alone, I went to-and-fro Osogbo like three times before I could get an ATM card,” she said, furiously.
Like Owolabi, Rahmat Ayeni is another shop owner who sells ‘hijab’ and materials for women’s veils opposite Skye Bank. She also has losses to recount, tied to the incident.
While her shop is opposite Skye Bank building, Rahmat lives very close by. On this unfortunate sunny Friday afternoon, her aged grandmother was hit in the leg by a sporadic gunshot that penetrated through their house.
Aside from this, Ayeni said the effect has also been a despicable one on her business. “You know, if we want to save or withdraw money now, we will use money. Unless you go to Osogbo.
“Business is not going smoothly again,” she said, adding that “people now go as far as Osogbo to make withdrawals, save money or rectify banking issues, which according to her is riskier.”
Four years after the attack, the Osun State High Court sitting in Ikirun found three men; Nuhu Jimoh, David Ndubisi and Oluwaseun Aderibigbe, guilty of launching coordinated attacks on the three banks and sentenced them to death by hanging.
“Nobody can sign such an agreement” – Okanlawon, Ifelodun LG Boss
Community people described the absence of commercial banks for six years as torturous experience for Ikirun and its environs, but the chairman of Ifelodun LGA, Okanlawon Akeem seems indifferent.
In his response, Mr. Okanlawon said the issue still requires adequate patience.
According to him, his predecessor was asked to sign an undertaking that armed robbers will not attack banks in Ikirun again before commercial banks could return to the town.
“Nobody can sign such an agreement,” he declared, noting that “if eventually, those robbers come tomorrow, [what is] next is for the person to be arrested because he’s the one that signed an agreement that robbers won’t come again.”
The Council boss disclosed that the said undertaking is the reason the council lost hope in influencing those commercial banks back into Ifelodun LGAs.
“That’s why we’re not taking any action on it. If they bring it, fine. Not that we’re against commercial banks in Ikirun,” stressing that “for anybody to sign an agreement that they will not be attacked again, nobody can sign such an undertaking.”
Incessant robbery attacks in Osun
While the aftermath of robbery attacks plunged Ikirun community and its environs into economic and financial disadvantages since 2016, consecutive bank robberies on other neighboring communities hosting commercial banks still got their hopes shattered.
Osun State experienced a series of deadly robbery attacks in 2021.
In March 2021, a Wema Bank branch situated in Okuku, Odo-Otin Local government – an approximately 12km distance and 13-minutes drive from Ikirun – was attacked by armed robbers, leaving one person dead while many others injured.
Less than five months after the Okuku incident, branches of United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Access Bank in Iree, Boripe LGA were both attacked simultaneously.
The incident which led to the death of a police officer attached to the bank, Dauda Jelili, did not stay long in the news before it became a precedent for subsequent attacks.
On 28 September 2021, a group of about 20 daredevilry armed robbers attacked Wema Bank branch in Iragbiji. This time, it was a simultaneous attack with the divisional Police headquarters situated in the town, leading to the death of a newly-promoted Inspector, Hammed Ogunniyi, and one other police inspector, Ayinla Odeyemi, later in a gun duel.
While banks attacked in Okuku, Iree and Iragbiji in 2021 continue operations months after the attacks, the people of Ikirun still lick their wounds, six years after the bloodletting attack.
The Police spokesperson in Osun State, SP Yemisi Opalola, in a telephone interview said the Police are doing enough to assure adequate security in the state, adding that the Police cannot force banks back into operation.
“It’s been a long time. And we’ve placed a security measure to ensure it never happens again,” she said.
Answering questions on measures by the Command to curb incessant robbery attacks in the state, SP Opalola noted that “even the banks can see themselves that different kinds of security measures have been deployed,” stressing, however, that the trend of robberies in the state followed each other in 2021 and efforts are in place to avert possible recurrence.
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