The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Usman Alkali Baba, on Tuesday ordered an immediate restructuring of the security architecture on the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway to provide adequate deployment of personnel and assets to ensure the protection of lives and property along the expressway and forestall kidnappings and other ugly incidents thereon.
In a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja by the Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, the IGP declared that ” the Police High Command was not insensitive to the prevailing security challenges on the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, but has rather been engaged with charting a path towards decimating the security issue and strategically eliminating the threats along the expressway”
The statement explained that the decision followed the briefs received by the Police High Command of the security situation on the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway from the Commissioners of Police in charge of Lagos, Ogun, and Oyo State Commands.
According to it, the IGP similarly emphasized that the Police Authority was not insensitive to the prevailing security challenges on the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, but has rather been engaged with charting a path towards decimating the security issue and strategically eliminating the threats along the expressway; hence the on-the-spot assessment of the black spots along the way by the CPs of Ogun and Oyo States, on the directives of the IGP for the enhanced safeguard of the expressway.
It added that IGP pledged adequate operational support in form of technology-based and tactical operational assets for the Commissioners of Police in charge of Lagos, Ogun, and Oyo, and Heads of tactical operational units in the area to combat the current trend of crimes and criminality on the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway.
It further stated that the IGP, therefore, called on well-meaning Nigerians, particularly road users, hunters, community leaders, and other stakeholders who ply the route to constantly expose known criminals who terrorize innocent Nigerians along the route and within adjoining communities to the Police and other security agencies for immediate arrest and prosecution.