Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has said Lagos State is ready for the creation of state police.
Sanwo-Olu stated this on Thursday during a media chat, said he eagerly awaits the creation of state police in the country.
According to him, Lagos State has at least 10,000 men to be immediately deployed once the Federal Government and the National Assembly make constitutional provisions for the establishment of state police.
He added that men of the Lagos Neighborhood Safety Corps (LNSC), a uniformed security agency established by a law of the Lagos State House of Assembly in 2016, would be pulled out to join state police.
Sanwo-Olu said, “I am an advocate for it. I believe we needed it like yesterday. And the interesting thing is that we have the Neighbourhood Watch and it is still functional, about 6,000 of them. The good news is that I have given approval for us to recruit additional 4,000 of them. And this is job for our youths, our able-bodied men.
“What that means for me is that if they give approval for state police, I have 10,000 men that I can further train and get them ready and these are people that know the entire community, the nooks and crannies.”
“I am waiting for it,” the governor stressed, adding that men of the neighbourhood watch, if empowered to bear assault rifles, will surpass expectations.
Furthermore, he added that “they provide intelligence at our state security meetings and you can imagine what happens if that is turned around to a proper security agency”.
Recall that last week, President Bola Tinubu and 36 state governors considered the creation of state police as solution to the menacing security challenges like kidnapping and banditry ubiquitous in the country.
Also, this week, a Constitution Amendment Bill to introduce state police scaled second reading in the House of Representatives.
Alleluia is the Assistant Editor and Content Writer at LagosPost.ng. She is a prolific writer and editor, she has written features and news stories on Lifestyle, Sports, Business, Politics and B2B marketing. She is also an event coordinator, host and social media content creator.
