THE Lagos State Police Commissioner, Hakeem Odumosu has warned criminal elements to stay away from Lagos just as he has asked kidnappers intending to come to the State to write their will as they would not sure of going back alive.
The police boss made the declaration while parading over crime suspects many of whom were arrested between November, 2019 and January 2020. About 700 suspects were arrested within two months.
According to Odumosu who spoke to journalists during his first press conference this year, 112 robbery suspects, 46 cultists, 82 murder suspects, 3 kidnappers were among those arrested.
He also said that out of the number, a total of 447 were taken to the TaskForce, Oshodi for further action.
Out of the number, 53 were warned and released while 394 were charged to court out of which 296 were convicted.
Commissioner Odumosu disclosed that 2300 motorcycles were impounded for various traffic offences ranging from plying on unauthorized routes, operating at late hours, carrying passengers without helmet, carrying of pregnant women, using unregistered plate numbers and so on.
He emphasized that the police command was not against commercial motorcyclists’ business insofar as they were to operate within the ambits of the law.
Odumosu warned against the unauthorised use of unregistered customized vehicle plate numbers on Lagos roads, explaining that the use of customised plate numbers has been abused.
He enjoined all those who prefer customized plate numbers to follow due process by obtaining the necessary approvals and documents from vehicle registration authorities. He also advised bullion Van owners to duly register their vehicles as anyone without the proper plate number would be impounded.
To stem the tide of such abuse, Odumosu hinted that police in Lagos now work in collaboration with state mobile courts to summarily try arrested offenders.
The police chieftain also used the opportunity of the conference to warn hospitals in Lagos which deny gunshot or accident victims treatment because of non-submission of police report on admission. He reminded such hospitals that it was an offence to deny victims the right to treatment as their lives were more important.
Recalling a recent incident involving members of the Lagos Chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), the Commissioner warned that the police would no longer tolerate a situation where public roads are blocked by members of the Union or any other union over an internal matter that ought to be handled by management. “Internal crisis within the union should be handled internally” he cautioned.
On the increasing spate of killing of employers by their domestic staff, Odumosu advised members of the public who engage domestic staff such as cooks, drivers, security guards and so on, to always embark on back ground check of such persons with a view to knowing who they are, and where they are coming from before they are officially employed. He said that the Lagos Command has about eight outstanding cases involving the killing of employers by their domestic staff.
Arising from complaints of human rights abuse by some rank and file policemen, Odumosu declared that no police man has the right to stop and start reading the contents of the phone of anybody they accosted on the road and neither do policemen have the right to arrest any young man simply because he is wearing dreadlock, ear-ring or sagged trousers. “Such action of illegal arrest is an infringement on the right of privacy of the person” he emphasized.
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