Lagos lockdown: Sanwo-Olu Deploys Military, Police, DSS Over Attacks

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has promised residents in the state of safety of lives and their property even amid the lockdown.

Governor Sanwo-Olu said this on Tuesday, April 14 while addressing newsmen at Marina, following the deployment of security agencies to different locations in the state to halt attacks by robbers and hoodlums on residents while observing the stay at home order.

With the governor at the press briefing is the Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu; Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi; Nigeria Navy Ship Beecroft, Commandant Ibrahim Shettima and 9 Brigade Commander Ikeja Cantonment, Brigade General Musa Awwal.

Naija News understands that Sanwo-Olu had an emergency Security Council meeting with the top officials as mentioned above to discuss and provide a means of curbing the increasing reports of crime committed daily by robbers, cultists, miscreants and other criminals amid the lockdown in the state due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

The governor noted that “Over 100 suspects have been arrested in the last 72 hours on account of disturbances. All the suspects have accordingly been charged to court.”

“Those miscreants that you may have seen in the videos going viral are not hungry people. They are opportunistic criminals and will be treated as such by the law enforcement agencies,” said Sanwo-Olu.

Sanwo-Olu further stated that the Lagos State government is working hand in hand with the Federal Government to proffer solutions to the ongoing in the state. Adding that DIG Peter Ogunyanwo has been deployed in the state as the Intervention Squad Coordinator to restore peace of residents by dealing with the evil perpetrators.

He said, “With this revised strategy, you will see an increase in mobile police deployment in all trouble spots in the metropolis as well as the police intensifying patrols around residential areas, boundary communities during this lockdown period.”

“This will also be carried out in conjunction with other security agencies – Army, Navy, Airforce and Directorate of State Security Services (DSS),”

Sanwo-Olu, however, urged all Lagosians to adhere to the lockdown extension directive, noting that violators of the order will be dealt with as there will be zero tolerance for disobedience.

Meanwhile, Naija News had reported earlier that the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has given his approval for the freedom of 72 convicts in the Kaduna and Kafanchan Correctional Centres.

Naija News Understands that the State Government took the decisive approach as part of the government’s efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19.