Lagos State governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said on Monday that a long list of abandoned buildings across the state may serve as safe haven for criminals has been compiled.
Sanwo-olu said the state government would soon take action to ensure that these buildings do not become security threats in communities where they have been found.
“Two days ago, I received a report of abandoned buildings across the state from Neighbourhood Watch. The list is about 250 pages with addresses and pictures of the buildings. These are some of the places where criminals and miscreants hide to launch their activities. We are passing this list to the security for immediate response and actions. This surveillance speaks to the necessity of state police. All the preventable criminalities happening are because we have not agreed as a nation that there should be state police.”
Sanwo- Olu spoke during a live interview on Arise TV, where he shared details of his administration’s achievements in the last two years.
Sanwo-Olu was 731 days in office on May 29.
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Recall that at a consultative meeting on security held last month, participants requested the government to take control of uncompleted buildings and abandoned vehicles to boost security.
The governor, who spoke against the background of rising spate of kidnapping and criminalities across the country, said Lagos was on alert to prevent the spillover of criminalities from neighbouring states into the state. To this, he said his administration was on the verge of recruiting additional 1,500 men into the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC) to boost intelligence gathering in local communities and aid security agencies to quickly respond to crimes.
He said Lagos in the last six months, had collaborated with the police to strengthen community policing in addressing localised crimes and checking activities of cultists. The State gave the police 1,250 men from the state’s Neighborhood Watch.
“We have been an advocate of state police and it is one of the submissions I made at the recent public hearing on constitutional amendment in Lagos.
