e-ISSN : 2620 3502 International Journal of Integrated Education p-ISSN : 2615 3785 DETERMINANTS AND IMPACT OF ARMED ROBBERY IN THE CITY OF BAMENDA, CAMEROON Ofe Ako-Mbi Aku Elvis* PhD Candidate, The University of Bamenda, Bamenda, Cameroon Simon Tata Ngenge, Mark Bolark Funteh Professor of History, Faculty of Arts, The University of Bamenda, Bamenda, Cameroon ABSTRACT This paper examines the determinants and impact of armed robbery in the city of Bamenda. Armed robbery remained a source of continuous threat, harassments, violence and intimidation to the city dwellers of Bamenda, North West Region of Cameroon. Therefore, armed robbery was considered a crime as stipulated by the Cameroon penal code of 2016. The paper argues that armed robbery in the city of Bamenda caused socio-economic and political imbalances among the social stratum of the city inhabitance. The study adopts the qualitative approach to assess the causes and impact of armed robbery in the city of Bamenda. Our findings revealed that though efforts had been initiated by the state and indigenous inhabitants to eradicate the predicaments of armed robbery in the city, armed robbery continued to permeate into the fabrics of the city. Keywords: Robbery, Crime, Economic, Prevention, Control, Social, impact, Inequality Introduction Armed robbery has been defined variously by different authors, but in this paper, it simply refers to a process that involves the forceful deprivation of some innocent individuals of their lawful belongings by an armed individual or group of individuals without recourse to the law. Among the many crimes in the city of Bamenda, armed stood tall as it plagued the peaceful existence of the city for a long time. Despite the fact that the Cameroon penal code prescribed serious sanctions for this crime, and the angry mob often resorted to jungle justice, exacting extrajudicial killings, the act continued as the armed robbers showed resilience with changing security paradigms in the city. Aside from the fact that armed robbery was an infringement on the fundamental human rights of the victim, its victims usually suffered certain tremendous negative social and economic consequences.1 This phenomenon of armed robbery was not limited to the city of Bamenda, as it was experienced in other parts of the country and the sub-region.2 Victims of armed robbery cut across all classes of the society, although the wealthy with more valuable items, and the vulnerable received the most attacks. Hotspots in the city of Bamenda experienced high robbery attacks as compared to areas with less hustle and bustle. This notwithstanding, spontaneous robbery attacks took place when the opportunity presented itself, for example, in areas of low security where a potential victim surfaced with valuable items either in cash or kind and had no security. Despite efforts that were made by the government and local population to deter or prevent armed robbery, the phenomenon just like other crimes persisted. The malicious impact of this persistent occurrence of armed robbery in the city constituted a threat and challenge to the city’s security and development. Data from secondary sources was used to analyze the problem why armed robbery persisted in the city of Bamenda with the sole aim of understanding the determinants and impact of the problem and recommending some viable solutions towards curbing or possibly eradicating it in the city and country at large. It is argued that armed robbery and indeed other crimes were linked to some significant imbalances in the existing social system of the society and until certain measures are drastically taken, the problem will not only continue to 1 Arinze, P. E., “An evaluation of the effect of armed robbery in Nigerian economy”, 2012. www.ajol.info/index 2 Saibou Issa, Les coupeurs de routes: Histoire du banditisme rural et transfrontalier dans le basin du lac Tchad, Karthala, 2010. Volume 4, Issue 2, February 2021 | 317 e-ISSN : 2620 3502 International Journal of Integrated Education p-ISSN : 2615 3785 permeate the society but its dire consequences may seriously be catastrophic to national peace, unity and development. This provided the background for which this article explains some of the burning issues concerning the determinants and impact of armed robbery and insecurity in the city of Bamenda. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The materialist philosophy on society and social phenomena was utilized in this study. The school locates its paradigm within the Conflict/Marxist perspective. The major argument of the school is that, the causes of social phenomena, events and human behaviors can be explained and understood contextually focusing on the existing material arrangement of the society. The material arrangement of every society determines the behaviors of its members and the kind of actions that they would produce at a given point in time and situation.3 In other words, social actions and problems are a direct reflection or products of the existing material arrangement of the society. The city of Bamenda just as the entire Cameroon state operated a capitalist society in which the success of an individual was more valued than the success of all. As such, the material arrangement of the system was characterized by structural imbalances with manifestations of some features of inequality, unemployment, poverty, injustice, and inhumanity which were responsible for the occurrences of social problems such as armed robbery in the city and the country in general. This scenario was the case experienced in many other African countries like Nigeria and South Africa in which the political arrangement in a society were such that there was an unequal access to power among the citizens to the extent that only the tiny group of elites had it.4 Political power was thus acquired not exclusively for the development of the society and for the improvement of the quality of life of majority of the people, but for the self-aggrandizement of the tiny group of those in positions of authority and their cronies or collaborators.5 The political class struggled for power in order to further their personal socio-economic interests irrespective of the larger interest of the people. In this regard, public resources, at all levels of government, meant to cater for the basic needs of the people such as building infrastructures, conquering poverty, hunger, unemployment, diseases, etc, ended up in the private pockets of those in authority and their collaborators.6 The political culture was that politics was seen as business and business was politics. This scenario, according to this school of thought, in the end not only created a perpetual wide gap between the rich and the poor in the society, but also created unending ravaging poverty, unemployment, hunger, death, etc. in this system; politics was a zero-sum game, a winner-takes-all situation. But then the oppressed and exploited members of the society responded to their unfortunate conditions in unprecedented ways and manners that were unlawful such as armed robbery which endangered the city’s security and development. Also, vertical acceleration in the society depended on the economic myth of an individual. This is to say wealth, power, status and prestige were highly rooted in the individual’s economic strength so that only those who had the money afforded it, whether they were credible or not. This scenario did not only alienate the masses, but also seriously undermined traditional moral norms and values. The consequence of this was that incredible and morally bankrupt individuals ended up in high positions of authority. This situation had a high propensity to bring corruption in the system because as Ake opines, when politics becomes the affairs of businessmen and women, corruption will be the order of the day because those who invested in the business of politics expected maximum profits in return which was only possible through the siphoning of public resources.7 As politicians and their collaborators siphoned public funds meant to capture poverty, unemployment, etc, into their private accounts through phony contracts and imaginative means, the society was left undeveloped leaving the people on their own to struggle for survival. This did not only leave some inhabitants of the city of Bamenda and citizens of Cameroon angry with these officials, but frustrated them,hence brewing the option of alternative means of survival such as armed robbery. A view held by thematerialist philosophy on society and social phenomena is that although it is not possible to eradicate crime from the society due to the nature of the political-economic system that existed, it 3 Wayper, C. L., Political thought, The English university press ltd, 1970. 4 Umar, S. U., “Capitalism and youth terrorism in Nigeria”, journal of emancipation, vol.1 no.4, Abuja – Nigeria, 2010. 5Ake C., “The Nigerian State: antinomies of a periphery formation” in cleaned Ake (edit) the political economy of Africa, Singapore. Longmans Singapore Ltd., 2003. 6 Giddens, A., Sociology, 4th edition, Cambridge: polity University press, 2004. 7 Ake C., “The Nigerian State: antinomies of a periphery formation” Volume 4, Issue 2, February 2021 | 318 e-ISSN : 2620 3502 International Journal of Integrated Education p-ISSN : 2615 3785 could/can however be curbed through some measures of adjustments directed at addressing the determinants of the problem rather than the impact. Some scholars like Onu,8 suggested that the welfare of the majority of the people must be put in the front burner and this concerns massive eradication of poverty, unemployment, hunger, diseases, etc, and building massive quality infrastructures, as well as, removing social inequality and injustice from the system. This will no doubt go a long way in putting armed robbery at serious check. The determinants of armed Robbery in the city of Bamenda From independence, Cameroons’ worst challenge or predicament was that of insecurity caused by numerous criminal acts such as armed robbery.9 Among the cities of the country hard hit by this phenomenon of armed robbery was Bamenda.