…SOLICITS DONATION FOR TSSTF
By Okosun Dennis
The Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has cautioned social media users to desist from passing scary, unverified information through the social media platforms, saying that such unconfirmed, unverified and unsubstantiated reports make investigation difficult for the law enforcement agencies.
He admonished users to always give credible information at their disposal to the Nigerian Police or other security agencies to enable them profile and analyse it and take necessary steps to track such criminals or mitigate occurrence of crimes in the state.
Gov Sanwo-Olu spoke at the Lagos State Security Trust Fund (TSSTF), held at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island on Thursday, 24th November, 2022.
“Social Media has turned itself into police station. When criminal things happen, it makes it difficult to investigate. Let’s stop passing scary information on social media that are not credible and verifiable, the Governor warned.
“Support us with those information to serve you better. There are better channels to pass information rather than posting it on the social media and scare people.”
While applauding the police for their tireless efforts at combating criminals despite paucity of equipment, he used the opportunity to appeal to investors, Corporate bodies and individuals to donate generously to the fund that has had immeasurable contributions to the provision of equipment and other logistical demands to the force.
“They have been able to do so much with a little. We have recorded zero cases of bank robbery attacks in Lagos in the last one year. There is no investment that is too small. We don’t want to have it as it were hence we want to change the status quo. TSSTF is a model that have worked and other country are emulating us,” Sanwo-Olu said.
Lamenting the paucity of funds to the Nigerian Police against the revelation by the CP Abiodun Alabi that out of the N74,773,601,916.30 billion budgets approved by the Senate for the Nigerian Police Trust Fund in 2021, only five vehicles and few other equipment were donated to the Lagos State Police Command, Sanwo-Olu said everything would be done to sustain the tenets and standard set by TSSTF to reequip the force for optimal performance.
“We spend over N10 billion year to year on security. It has been useful and justiciable. I want to see TSSTF 25 years from now doing greatly well. The call we are making today is to make this fund bigger.
For fire incidences that broke out in some markets and facilities, “We have built additional five stations to assist in combating such incidences. Because we are entering the yuletide period where crimes spike is high, we must give our commitment. I will donate 25 Pickup vans to Police Divisions before next week runs out.
Responding to a question on the need for the police to zero in on the use of technology to curb crimes, the Governor disclosed that the Lagos State government have so far installed about 2,000 cameras in major areas of the state while targeting 10,000 across the state.
“About 10,000 security cameras will be deployed in Lagos state. At the moment, we have about 2,000 already installed. Also, about 1,200 kilometres of roads have been provided with street lights. Unfortunately, some miscreants are cutting the cables hence some areas are left in the dark.
“We are going to be hard on people doing despicable things under the bridge – those carrying out commercial activities would be cleared. Their activities affect the structures. We would clear and deal with them. In addition, those vandalising the cables will not be spared.”
On the activities of beggars around Lagos, “we have 33 Correctional homes we take them to. We don’t have border post at Ojota to block them, even though we are aware of some cartel and people are benefiting from it.
“There are some with health challenges and they open their bodies that scares people. It is unacceptable. It is a bigger social issue we need to deal with.”
On extortion and harassment by LASTMA, he expressed disappointment and called on the General Manager of LASTMA, Mr. Bolaji Oreagba to warn his men against public outcry against his men’s malfeasances and harassment.
“We fire people in LASTMA almost every week for misdemeanor. They must not enter traffic offenders’ vehicles. Talk to your men. They can take traffic offenders’ registration numbers to track them instead of forcing their doors to open,” Gov Sanwo-Olu warned.
https://any.peopleandpowermag.com/gov-sanwo-olu-cautions-social-media-users-against-passing-scary-information/