Lagos
State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode on Wednesday presided over the
inaugural Security Council Meeting, issuing a four-week ultimatum to
miscreants and persons in possession of illegal arms and weapons in the
state.
Briefing
State House Correspondents shortly after the meeting, held at the Lagos
House, Ikeja the State Commissioner of Police (CP), Mr. Kayode
Aderanti, said the major crux of the meeting was the charge by the
Governor to all security agencies in the state to mop up all illegal
arms and weapons, often deployed by unscrupulous persons to terrorize
innocent citizens.
He
said Governor Ambode was deeply concerned about the safety of life and
property in the state and therefore urged all security agencies to
ensure that Lagos is rid from the activities of criminals and hoodlums.
“It
was a very comprehensive meeting, very exhaustive and we were able to
have an overview of all the security issues involved in the state. We
reviewed the security architecture of the state generally and we came to
the conclusion that we need to work harder to assure the people of
Lagos that under his watch, Lagos will continue to remain safe, Lagos
will continue to remain investor’s destination and we are committed to
keep doing that. How can we achieve that, is to ensure that we keep
Lagos free from criminals, free of hoodlums and cultists that are
parading the state,” Aderanti said in a statement signed by the Chief
Press Secretary to the Governor, Habib Aruna.
He
stated further, “In doing that, he further directed that we (security
agencies), are going to give an ultimatum to all those individuals that
are in possession of illegally acquired weapons that are not licensed,
we are giving them four-week ultimatum, they should hand over all the
weapons that are in their possession to all the area commanders in the
state and after four weeks we intend to take steps.
“We
intend to do these in order to rid the state off weapons that we have
termed as weapons of mass destruction, because they are using it against
innocent people, our children, brothers, fathers and mothers, we
believe we need to take them off and in doing that the carrot and stick approach will be adopted”.
Aderanti
however said the security agencies will be forced to be take decisive
steps to recover all weapons after the expiration of the period of
grace.
“But
we are enjoining all those in possession of these weapons to please
hand them over the area commands in the state and moving forward, we
intend to clean it off. We would do these within the four weeks of grace
and we would have all these properly documented, captured and stored in
the data base of the state government, the Police and the security
agencies, this is one of the major decisions that we actually we agreed upon.”
Aderanti
said the meeting also touched on all matters relating to maintaining
the peace and security currently being enjoyed in the state with a bid
to ensure that every resident can move about freely without any fear of
molestation.
“It
is also the Governor’s focus that under his watch, he would place much
emphasis on security, and security is going to be the baseline. He
believes that if Lagos State is secured, people will be able to come to
Lagos state and invest. He is looking at a situation whereby citizens
can go out at night, anytime of the day, people can walk on the streets,
drive at night, they can do whatever they want to do lawfully without
being molested. If we have all these in place, then we can move forward
and he can implement all his noble ideas and vision for the state”, the
Lagos CP said.
Those
in attendance at the meeting include the Director, State Security
Service (SSS), Mr. Little John, Assistant Director, SSS, Mr. Salami
Yinka, Commander 9, Mechanized Brigade, Major General Ahmed Mohammed
Sabo, Commander NNS Beecroft, Olokun Apapa, Navy Commodore Daniel Ikoli,
Commander Airforce Base Ikeja, Air Commodore Lere Osanyintolu and the
Secretary to the State Government, Mr Tunji Bello.
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