LAGOS NOVEMBER 13TH (URHOBOTODAY)-The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr Fatai Owoseni has warned those patronizing traffic hawkers on Lagos street to desist from the act warning that henceforth the police would be prosecuting street hawkers along side those patronizing them.
Owoseni who also warned Lagosians from patronizing motorcyclists popularly known as okada plying illegal routes in the state to desist from the act advised that if both the street hawkers and motorcyclists plying illegal routes were not patronize they would desist from the illegal act.
Owoseni who gave the warning while briefing the newsmen at the Lagos State Police Command, Ikeja, Lagos, yesterday said beside the fact that the activities of street hawkers are responsible for traffic congestion in Lagos State, most of the wares hawked by street hawkers are poisonous and dangerous to their health.
He assured that the police would sustain visibility on Lagos streets by clearing Lagos roads of street hawkers and okada riders, adding that plans are under way to increase logistics on the roads.
According to him, “The Lagos State government is injecting no fewer than 100 vehicles to the fleet of Rapid Resonse Squad (RRS) to assist the squad in fighting crime in Lagos. The government also intend to supply helicopters and motorcycles to the force. The police will get this supply before November 27th, 2015.”
Owoseni said that though the true picture of crime in Lagos was not being presented well, the police were installing strategies to curb the menace of traffic robbery and other crimes.
“I think I should use the opportunity of this press briefing to allay the fears of residents of Lagos State.
“The true picture of the crime situation in Lagos is not being presented.
“Some media house present Lagos as nobody is moving on the streets and people are not doing their businesses. This is not true.
“The Police in Lagos with the cooperation of other security agencies and with the support of the Lagos State Government have put up strategies with a view to reducing crime.
“There is nowhere in the world except you don’t have human beings that we do not have crime and of course the influx of people to Lagos makes it prone to crime.
“We have continued to improve on the strategies emplaced in crime and traffic management,’’ the commissioner said.
Owoseni, while giving statistics of crime in the state, said that modest achievement had been made as various arrests were made on various crimes committed by hoodlums.
“Through the various measures that were put in place, between the last time we had this interaction and today, which was Oct. 27, some modest achievement has been recorded by the command.
“A total of 21 suspects were arrested in connection with armed robbery and out of the 21, 13 of them were specifically in connection with traffic robberies.
“Some were arrested as a result of police swift response to distress calls, while some of them were arrested through information by residents.
“Some were also arrested in the course of follow up actions on some robbery cases,’’ he told journalists.
“Eleven different types of arms like cut to size pistol, automatic pistol, double barrel guns and pump action were recovered.
“Twenty-two life ammunitions, assault instrument of violence like cutlasses and charms were also recovered.
“Some of them have been charged to court, some are still being interrogated, so that they can lead us to other members of their gang
“Some suspects are still in custody having got a proper remand from the court.
“From the suspects arrested, various items robbed from their victims were recovered and returned to them as some were caught in the act.’’
The commissioner said that in the course of the different police operations, 15 vehicles were recovered from different places in the country.
“In the course of investigation, we discovered that unsuspecting victims had hired them as driver.
“And in the course of working, they bolted with the cars and through tracking we were able to trace some of the vehicles to other parts of the country.
“Also, through intelligence report, the long arm of the law caught up with two men who claimed they reside in Abuja with N400,000 counterfeit Nigerian currency.
“They have been charged to court and remanded.
“In our efforts to reduce and address the menace of cultism in the state, 11 cultists within the Lagos Island were arrested.
“Among them are the notorious ones. Some of them are connected with previous cult-related murder cases in the state,’’ Owoseni said.
He added that a young lady who the police believed must have stolen a week old baby from Imo State was also arrested.
“A commercial driver had taken the lady from Imo State and on getting to Oshodi, he alerted the police that the lady never breastfed the baby throughout the journey and the lady was arrested.
“Upon interrogation, she confessed that her aunt gave her baby to handover to someone in Lagos for a fee.
“The police later arrested two other persons involved and the baby has been kept in proper custody,’’ he said.
Some pipeline vandals were also arrested in the course of siphoning petroleum products from NNPC pipeline, the commissioner disclosed.
He said they were caught in a creek at FESTAC Town, Amuwo-Odofin and the exhibit recovered from them were 7,500 litres of petroleum product, hoses and a pumping machine.