THE RISING CRIME RATE IN LAGOS
Lagos needs all the assistance to combat crime because of its peculiarity
From a commando-style operation in Lekki where several banks were robbed and scores of people including policemen were killed to a similar attack in FESTAC where the robbers escaped through the canal unchallenged to the dare-devil display in Ikorodu, Lagos State has in recent time been under siege. The attacks by armed robbers and sundry criminal gangs have already created a sort of panic among residents of Lagos who can no longer sleep easy.
However, a strange dimension to the criminalities is the one perpetrated in traffic snarls by a bunch of hoodlums either in the day or at nighttime. They swoop on hapless motorists on traffic, rob them of their valuables and money, and injure many with machetes and other dangerous weapons. These attacks are raising public concerns on what the relevant authorities are doing to curtail them. This is because in most of the cases the police are nowhere to be sighted until the robbers and criminals must have completed their dastardly operations and fled.
However, it is not as if efforts are not being made by the Lagos State authorities; it is just that there are no tangible results yet. For instance, the Lagos State government recently announced some crime-fighting measures aimed at tackling the problem. Major amongst these, according to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, is the plan to procure three helicopters to fight criminal activities from the air as well assist in monitoring traffic gridlock around the metropolis.
Apart from acquiring the helicopters, Ambode also promised to acquire and deploy more closed circuit televisions (CCTVs) and other technologies to tackle crime in the state. He also promised that his administration
We sympathise with Ambode who assumed office in the state at a most challenging period. However, there are many people who do not see the urgent need for acquiring the helicopters when most of the robberies are perpetrated in the night. Even when some of these crimes happen in broad daylight, security operatives are most often not found on the ground. The idea of buying helicopters is also becoming very common among governors most of whom have moved from buying patrol vehicles; but the question remains as to whether these machines are actually helping to fight crimes.
The same criticism trails the issue of the installation of CCTVs, which can only function in the daytime as against the nighttime when most robberies take place. The argument is that government should concentrate in repairing other infrastructure like bad roads where some of these hoodlums operate and which are isolated and without illumination in the night. Aside upgrading infrastructure like roads and streetlight, they should also support the police in terms of training and equipment. Besides, the federal government needs to recruit more men into the police for as it is inadequate to have “only 33,000 police officers in Lagos state to watch over 20 million” residents.
Against the background of the proliferation of illegal small arms and light weapons (SALW), especially within the West African sub-region, we believe that tackling crimes in Lagos is beyond the capacity of the state government. It is, however, comforting to note that Governor Ambode is making efforts to tackle the problems. We only hope that his is a correct prognosis and that the idea of buying helicopters would not turn out to be another wasteful venture. would boost the operation of Marine Police and the Nigerian Navy on the waterways in the state and that various equipment and platforms would soon be presented to them. The governor promised that his administration is working hard to build a safer, cleaner and more prosperous state for all.