The Commissioner of Police, Lagos Command, Mr. Hakeem Odumosu, yesterday, disclosed that policemen have been deployed to carry out 24 hours surveillance on schools and farms, to avert kidnappings and banditry in Lagos State. The Police boss, however, lamented that some of the terrains, especially those of the farms, were not accessible by vehicles.
He said the command would liaise with the Ministry of Agriculture and the state government in purchasing motorcycles for that patrol of the farmlands. Fielding questions from journalists on the Command’s preparedness to prevent kidnap attacks on schools and 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.”
Besides, the Police boss said: “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.”