Lockdown: Beef up security, IGP orders AIG, CPs

By Ihesiulo Grace 15 April 2020 14 No comment

.Reads riot act to criminals attacking residents

.Warns police officers against bad behaviour

.Lagos govt orders clampdown on hoodlums

The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has ordered the Assistant Inspector-Generals of Police (AIG) and Commissioners of Police (CPs) where the stay-at-home order is being enforced to beef up security in their various jurisdictions.

The IGP specifically directed them to prevent criminals from taking advantage of the lockdown to attack residents and dispossess them of their properties.

Speaking while briefing the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja on Tuesday, Adamu said police authorities were aware of the activities of criminals in some communities in parts of Lagos and Ogun states.

The police boss emphasied that it will not treat any form of criminality with levity.

He said: “We want to again sound a note of warning to criminals that are taking the opportunity of the lockdown to go from place to place, especially in Lagos mainland and any part of this to desist from doing that.

“We have instructed all the Commissioners of Police, the AIGs in-charge of zonal commands, to deploy all the resources available to them to make sure that criminals are not allowed to take the opportunity of the lockdown to commit their crimes”.

While admitting that the police authorities were aware of the activities of criminals in some communities in some parts of Lagos and Ogun, the IGP stated that the force responded swiftly and deployed an intervention force led by a Deputy Inspector-General of Police.

According to the police boss, personnel were deployed to vulnerable points.

The points, he said, included residential areas, markets, shopping malls, banks, and other critical national infrastructure to make sure that they are not vandalised or attacked.

He said: “Due to the series of complaints received from Lagos and Ogun axis on the activities of some hoodlums who are common criminals that came out to be attacking innocent citizens and depriving them of their properties.

“We also ensured that policemen that were deployed adhere strictly to the force code of conduct and respect for the rights of Nigerian citizen”.

The IGP said the police would provide escort for movement of medical personnel and relief materials, while police water cannons have been provided for fumigation purposes, especially the FCT.

Adamu also said that grave consequences awaits police personnel who misbehave while enforcing the 14 days lock down order of President Muhammadu Buhari.

President Buhari on Monday extended his earlier quarantine order for another two weeks and directed a complete lock down of activities in Lagos, Ogun states and the Federal Capital Territory Abuja in furtherance of the efforts to curtail the spread of COVID-19.

Fielding questions from journalists during Tuesday’s briefing by the Presidential Task Force on COVID -19, on the activities of law enforcers some of who were alleged to be taking bribes from cab operators to operate, the IGP said an escort personnel have been despatched to arrest officers who misbehave.

According to him, a standard operational guidelines have been issued on how the quarantine order should enforced.

Adamu said that the police public relations offices across the states have been directed to provide hot phone lines to the public through which they can lodge complaints, adding that he would not tolerate any misbehaviour from the police officers.

Meanwhile, following the unrest arising from the ongoing lockdown to contain spread of Coronavirus in Lagos, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has ordered clampdown on robbers and hoodlums terrorising residents of the state.

Sanwo-Olu gave the order on Tuesday at the State House, Marina, while addressing newsmen on the update on the Coronavirus disease.

The governor said that one of the key responsibilities of his administration was the safety and security of lives and property of all citizens.

He said that the government would not abandon this responsibility at any time, hence, there was no room whatsoever in Lagos State for criminal gangs or miscreants of any kind.

”This brings me to the issue of the seeming rise in unrest in the metropolis and boundary communities.

”It is very apt that we have just concluded an emergency Security Council meeting this afternoon, in which all the various heads of the state’s security agencies were present.

”At this meeting, we discussed the increasing reports of crime and criminality across the metropolis as cultists, miscreants and other criminals have sought to take advantage of the lockdown to unleash havoc on our people.

”In fact, over 100 suspects have been arrested in the last 72 hours on account of disturbances. All the suspects have accordingly been charged to court.

”Let me assure you that those miscreants that you may have seen in the videos going viral are not hungry people; they are not acting on the basis of hunger.

”They are opportunistic criminals, and they will be treated as such by the law enforcement agencies,” Sanwo-Olu said.

The governor said that the state had been in close and constant communication with the Federal Government on the issue.

According to him, the Inspector General of Police has deployed a Deputy Inspector General of Police, who is a seasoned crime fighter, to Lagos as the Intervention Squad Coordinator.

He said that the Deputy Inspector General of Police was to help devise and superintend over a superior strategy to curtail and stem the perceived and actual threat of violence in the state.

”With this revised strategy, you will see an increase in mobile police deployment in all trouble spots in the metropolis; as well as the police intensifying their patrols around residential areas, boundary communities and other critical areas of activities during this lockdown period.

”This will also be carried out in conjunction with other security agencies – Army; Navy; Airforce and Directorate of State Security Service,” Sanwo-Olu said.

He urge all Lagosians to obey the lockdown extension directive in all its entirety so that they would not be found wanting.

The governor said that those who insist on flouting the directives would have no one but themselves to blame.

”Even as we have tasked law enforcement agencies to exercise restraint in their conduct, they also have clear orders to ensure that all those who seek to flout the rules are brought to justice.

”Let me say it again; there will be zero tolerance for disobedience of these directives,” he said.