Police assures Nigerians of safety during Yuletide

AIG Hassan Bala, in charge of Zone 2 Police Command, Onikan, Lagos, on Monday assured Nigerians travelling during the yuletide of safety.

"We are assuring people travelling, especially at the interchange of Ogere, Remo and Benin, including places of worship and recreation centres of safety.

"Police officers will also be changed at intervals in order to get good result from policing the two states, Lagos and Ogun.

"We are also making some preparations to ensure that robberies on the highways are checked.

"The two state commands have tremendously checked the activities of those hoodlums who break car glasses to rob people of their wrist watches, mobile phones and computers.

"We won’t stop at that, we are still going to send additional policemen to the commands to ensure that this act is thoroughly checked,’’ he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the AIG also launched two patrol vehicles and five motorcycles for the "Police is Your Friend’’ platform.

The AIG said that the motorcycles were given to the police by good spirited members of the public to be utilised with the vehicles to provide adequate protection for the people of Lagos and Ogun States.

Hassan added that Nigerians should help the police to provide them with better security.

"Nigerians should help us to police Lagos and Ogun states. They should ensure they have the numbers of their DPOs, Area Commanders and the emergency numbers,’’ he said.

Hassan said that Commissioners of Police from Lagos State and Ogun and other Senior Police Officers were meeting to strategise on how to effectively curb crime during the yuletide.

"The purpose of today’s meeting is in preparation for the Christmas and New Year that is very much around the corner.

"We call all the CPs in charge of the Zones, that is, the CPs of Ogun and Lagos states and the various Deputy Commissioners (Operations) and Area Commanders.

"This is to discuss and strategise on how best to ensure that we give the good people of Ogun and Lagos a safe and crime-free Christmas and New Year they deserve.

"In this meeting, we are going to explain the plans of the various Area Commanders and look at areas of deficiencies and we will make sure that we fill the loop holes,’’ Hassan said.

The AIG also restated the ban on street carnival and the use of fireworks during the yuletide as directed by the Inspector General of Police (I-G), Mr Solomon Arase.

"Following the instructions from the IG, every form of carnival and use of fireworks are banned.

"The idea is to prevent undesirable elements hiding under the guise of this celebration with fireworks to unleash mayhem on innocent members of the public,’’ he said.