Sanwo-Olu: Lagos is under-policed

Lagos residents have been bemoaning the rising spate of lawlessness and robbery across the metropolis in recent times.

On January 15, 2021, 22-year-old David Ntekim-Rex was killed by robbers in the Jibowu area of Lagos.

There have been reports of break-ins, car-jackings, muggings and traffic robberies every other day in the metropolis.

Sanwo-Olu decries how under-policed Lagos is. He's also reiterated why state police has become an imperative in the circumstances.

David Ntekim-Rex was killed by robbers in Lagos on Jan 15, 2021 (Muhammad Kamala) David Ntekim-Rex (Muhammad Kamala) Pulse Nigeria

"Statistics has shown that up until the effect of the #EndSARS protests where the police left the streets and we had to get them back, we were actually on top of security issues," the governor says during a chat with ChannelsTV on January 24, 2021. "Remember during the lockdown when we had issues of the cultists in Agege and other parts of the city, we were able to nip it in the bud very clearly and put a stop to it.

"One of the things that you would see is how we keep talking about reducing the command and control of our security architecture, state police and having them domesticated. There’s been some attempt in that line where we now have the constabulary, community policing just trying to start up.

"For me, the whole strength of policing or security architecture is intelligence. You need to have proper intelligence and you need to have the same amount of skills required at every point in time. These are some of the things we are doing with the security trust fund.

Lagos Gov Sanwo-Olu hails police personnel during a courtesy call (NAN) Pulse Nigeria

"Not only are we supporting the Lagos State Police Command with equipment, with transport requirements, with vests, with supplies that they require...the only thing we’ve not been able to do in this government is just buy them guns which is an area we are also having conversations around," the governor says.

'Lagos is under-policed'

He also stresses that the ratio of police to citizens in Lagos is abysmally low; and that until state governors control the police command within their domains and are able to recruit personnel into the force, most of the security challenges confronting the states won't be curtailed.

"One of the things we can do very quickly is to improve the ratio of police to citizens. That has not happened in a number of years. We believe that Lagos is under-policed. While the population of Lagos is growing, we don’t have the same growth in the number of police officers that we have or law enforcement officers that we have.

"If we can get the ratio right, the proportion right, then we can see a lot more activity in the turn around time when an emergency is raised or when a distress call comes in, we can see a quicker response time.

Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu [LSPC] Pulse Nigeria

"These are some of the things that as a nation, we need to have a conversation and solve. As a governor, the minimum I can do is up the skill, infrastructure and equipment of the numbers that we have at the Lagos State Police Command. But how do we take this number to 20,000 to 30,000 to 35,000...it’s a conversation we've been having with the federal government.

"That’s why we’ve been saying that until we have full state police...I can take a decision and say I want to recruit 20,000 or 15,000 fresh people into the state police force," he says.

Smart city

The governor says technology will soon be deployed to tackle crime on the busy and chaotic streets of the city.

"We are building what we call a smart city. We are doing a 2,000, high definition CCTV camera infrastructure architecture in the state. Technology is one of the things we believe we can use as a strong tool to help with security architecture and make them do their work well.

"That project has started. Before the end of this year, you will see a lot of cameras that are going to be up on the streets...high definition cameras with facial recognition, plate number recognition and they can also be active at night.

"Once we build a proper control and command center, with the historic data that will be coming out from those cameras, then we can have a lot more arrests and get a lot more deterrence. Because once you know that there is a likelihood that you are going to be arrested, you can get a lot of people not to be found wanting," the governor adds.

Lagos state Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu visits President Muhammadu Buhari to update him on the progress made in the reconstruction of Lagos following the #EndSARS mayhem. [Twitter/@NGRPresident] Pulse Nigeria

Nigeria's police force is federally controlled. Most state governors have criticized the current police structure, saying it has left them hamstrung.

Nigeria currently has 380,000 police personnel to safeguard the lives of over 200 million citizens and counting.

The United Nations recommends a ratio of one police officer to 400 citizens.

Nigeria's police officers are also notoriously corrupt, poorly trained and poorly remunerated.