9th August, 2016
The Lagos State Government on Tuesday said it will henceforth seize houses and hotels used as hideouts for kidnapping and other criminal activities in the state.
This is in a determined effort to tackle increasing crime rate in the state.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni who briefed newsmen after the State Security Council meeting presided over by Governor Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode at the State House, Ikeja on Tuesday said the government was determined to eradicate the menace of kidnapping and militancy in the state.
“The Security Council meeting was for us to look at the strategies that we would be deploying in tackling the criminal challenges that we have in the state and to further come up with strategies of sustaining those measures that would put criminal elements in check and of course the security council of the state has come out with plans to let our people know emphatically that the state is more poised at tackling all the criminal challenges and making sure that all the criminal elements that are going about in the state will not be allowed the freedom to practice any criminal act.
“There is no hiding place for criminal elements; in addition to that, it has been resolved that any structure, building or any places that criminal elements are using in the state will be confiscated. The state will not hesitate in the interest of the public to take over those safe havens, structures or houses that these criminal elements are using as hidden places to perpetrate their activities,” he said.
According to him, “The state still wants to use this opportunity to further enlighten the member of the public on the need to observe laws of the state government in order to make life easy for people in Lagos.”
Owoseni added that the Council also resolved that in as much as government had been enforcing the okada restriction with human face, the law would henceforth be scaled up to achieve the purpose of its enactment.
He said: “The State still want to use this opportunity to further enlighten the public on the need to observe those laws that have been made in order to make life easy for the good people of Lagos.
“The two particular ones that we have looked at is the restriction of the commercial motorcycles to certain routes in the State and of course the activities of street traders. What we want people to know is that the State is not sleeping on its enforcement duties but government is just trying to be responsible in the way these laws are enforced.
“The Security Council wants us to seize this opportunity to let the people know that these laws are made to be complied with and that we will not stop at making sure that they are enforced as they are supposed to be, and that elements that contravene these laws would also be made to face the law.”
He debunked insinuations as to whether there were challenges in enforcing the laws, saying that government was only trying to enforce the law with human face and urged the people to cooperate with government.
Owoseni also advised criminal elements in the State to turn a new leaf and get themselves meaningfully engaged, as there is no hiding place for them in the State.