THE scary tales of victims of traffic robbery in Lagos State underscore the woeful security situation in the state celebrated as the country’s economic hub. The Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and the Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, have not initiated any concrete proposals to tackle what is arguably the state’s most urgent crisis.
It is bothersome that motorists and residents now crisscross the state’s routes with trepidation. Recently, some residents narrated their chilling experiences at the hands of traffic robbers who have taken over the major routes in the state. From Ikorodu Road, Apongbon Bridge, Agege to Ojota among other areas, these ferocious hoodlums hold sway. They roar like hungry lions, overawe victims, and dispossess them of their belongings in violent episodes.
Among the recent victims is a co-presenter on an all-female-discussants television programme, Your View, Tope Mark-Odigie. She recounted a frightful encounter with two traffic robbers on the Alapere Bridge, inward Ojota around 7 pm a few days ago. Her colleague, Mariam Longe, also narrated that she and her husband had been robbed on Apongbon Bridge on different occasions. On September 9, 2021, a cyclist, Afolabi Mabogunje, lost his life after some hoodlums around the Shodex area, Anthony, on Ikorodu Road, stabbed him while he was waiting for his co-cyclists at about 5 am. These are snippets of the horrible insecurity threatening to bring Lagos to its knees. Surviving victims of the hoodlums’ attacks in the state recall their near-death incidents at the hands of the felons.
For now, criminals are awfully having the upper hand. Sanwo-Olu and Odumosu cannot feign ignorance of this situation or insist that there is no cause for worry. They would undeniably be aware of the reality that Lagosians are in the grip of appalling security challenges. Thus, they should jointly brainstorm to frontally stop the violent excesses of the hoodlums.
This is the truth the governor and the CP cannot shy away from, having been unable to contain the festering attacks targeting residents’ lives, limbs, and belongings. They are familiar with the evidence that traffic robbers, among other criminals, are now making Lagosians lose sleep. In June, Odumosu said 127 suspected traffic robbers were arrested between March and June 2021. This is proof that the situation requires an emergency response. The governor’s convoy in July ran into two machete-wielding traffic offenders at Ojota-inbound Alausa; the state’s seat of power, while terrorising a motorist. The two suspects are currently facing prosecution. But the events should naturally spur the state actors into action to send a strong warning to the criminals and aspiring ones that the state detests illegality.
Given Lagos’ robust stature and structure, the state government should be abundantly conscious that many people from far and near will continue to troop into it in search of greater opportunities and a better future. Thus, authorities in charge of security in the state must predict potential security threats and nip them in the bud.
Governing or policing a megacity is not a job for the faint-hearted. It requires everyday vigilance and hard work. The governor should be in charge anytime there are security threats and enthrone sanity through prognostic orders. He should show dependability and make security his prevailing cardinal focus to fail-safe other plans of government in other critical sectors.
The CP ought to be up and doing by inspiring his team with modern crime-control measures to protect the people. Innovative policing is the fulcrum of security in a megacity. The police should investigate crimes, gather intelligence, and imbibe preventive patrols using technology. Efficient hotlines and panic buttons in strategic places should be provided to help those in distress. In India, there is a Safe City project entailing the use of CCTV surveillance, command and control centre and aerial surveillance in some of the country’s cities to curb crime. The police can take a leaf out of India’s book.
The state needs to know that its support to the police goes beyond donating vehicles. It should intentionally stimulate crime preventive policies and strategies to make the state liveable and policeable. There is no better time than now to strengthen and reassess the 14-year-old Lagos State Security Trust Fund initiated to provide additional equipment and logistics support to the fund-starved central police operating at the state level.
There is no gainsaying that the perennial gridlock in the state principally sustains the activities of the louts. They hide under the cover of traffic congestion and darkness to unleash havoc on motorists and passengers. Efforts are required by the state to engender traffic management solutions and light up long-existing dark spots to tackle the challenge. There have been cases of robbers using motorcycles as getaway vehicles. Bikes and tricycles cannot be a long-term strategy for transportation in a megacity. They are an eyesore, a shambolic option in combating transportation problems. The state traffic laws must be ignited to end the chaos and untidy ambience blighting Lagos and endangering the critical infrastructure driving its megacity ambition.
Some traffic hawkers have been accused of robbing people in gridlock. Lagos has asserted that traffic trading activities on walkways, road verges, medians, setbacks, drainages, pedestrian bridges and on the main road hinder the free flow of human and vehicular movement, thereby worsening the state’s environmental sanitation issue. Without further delay, the government must enforce the state’s Street Trading and Illegal Market Prohibition Law to arrest the looming anarchy. The governor and the CP should embark on substantive reforms of operational strategies and standards of police in the state.
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