Hakeem Odumosu, the Lagos Commissioner
of Police, has disclosed that policemen have
been positioned to carry out 24 hours
surveillance on schools and farms, to
forestall abduction and banditry in the state.
He said this on Tuesday while talking to
journalists in Ikeja on the readiness of the
Command to tackle the menace of insecurity.
Odumosu, however, lamented that some of
the terrains, especially those of the farms,
were not reachable by vehicles.
The police chief stated that the command
would partner with the Ministry of Agriculture
and the state government in purchasing
motorcycles to patrol farmlands.
Odumosu said, “The Command has designed
an Operation Order to cater for the
deployment of personnel, surveillance, patrol
and strict monitoring of schools and
students’ activities across the state, in its bid
to provide adequate security for both public
and private schools in Lagos State.
“The command has also established synergy
between schools, parents, communities and
other security agencies in the state on the
need to improve on the existing security
architecture in various schools to forestall
any attack or ugly incidents.
“The surveillance will be extended to
farmlands. Unfortunately, some of them are
located in rural areas that are not motorable.
So, we have discussed with the Ministry of
Agriculture that all farms must have
government permits, as most of them are
just farming without letting the government
know what they are doing. It makes it difficult
to provide security for them.
“We are going to incorporate the Ministry of
Agriculture and traditional rulers for data of
farmlands. By the time this is put in place,
we will begin to map out security strategies
for them. At the moment, we are patrolling
areas that are motorable. When we get the
data and with the assistance of the Ministry
of Agriculture and state government, we hope
to use motorcycles to access the difficult
terrains.”