Insecurity: Lagos sees hope in organised community policing

Lagos State is stepping out of the pack of Nigeria’s 36 states to establish an organised community policing system as a measure to tackle rising insecurity in the state.

The move comes as fear continues to spread across schools in the state, in the light of increasing kidnap cases and other forms of criminality, including cultism in recent months.

This is as the four students and two officials of Igbonla Senior and Junior Model College in Epe, abducted last week by gunmen suspected to be militants, who were freed last night after the families reportedly paid millions of naira ransom, have undergone medical checks and reunited with their families.

It was the second school kidnap case in Lagos this year. The first, in February, was at Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary School at Agunfoye-Lugbusi, Ikorodu, where two students were abducted.    

A teacher at the Sacred Heart College, Apapa, describes the recurring kidnap cases as ‘very disturbing development,’ adding that the school has installed Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras as a way of checking the malaise.  Some other private schools visited, Apapa High School, says they are working to improve security within and around their premises.

Lagos State government earlier in the year had also announced plans to install about 13,000 CCTV cameras to strengthen the security system. Lagos with a population estimate of 21 million has about 30,000 police personnel.

Oyesoji Aremu, a professor of correctional psychology and coordinator, Strategic and Security Studies, University of Ibadan, describes this number as inadequate, insisting that the way to overcome the security challenges in Nigeria is the adoption of state policing system.

Aremu’s view tallies with Davidson Akhimien’s, managing director of King David Security, who believes that the current economic recession plays a role in the rising criminality, and strongly advocates a more effective policing system.

Governor Akinwunmi Ambode disclosed at the third quarter 2016 town hall meeting, in Surulere, that to tackle the new wave of insecurity in the state, plans are being perfected to recruit at 5,000 neighbourhood watchers for community policing, to earn at least N25,000 monthly salary in addition to other allowances. This is to be backed by the neighbourhood Safety Agency law recently signed by the governor, as part of efforts to institutionalise and deepen community policing in the state.

Meanwhile, in a statement on Wednesday following the release of the four students and their teachers, Steve Ayorinde, commissioner for information and strategy, restated “the determination of the government to ensure a 24-hour security.”  

He said adequate steps were being taken to stem the tide of kidnapping in the state, noting that in line with the directive of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, plans have been concluded to commence the demolition of illegal structures erected across the state waterfronts and creeks.