Kidnapping: Lagos to raise new local security outfit

LAGOS State House of Assembly has commenced moves to aid law enforcement and security personnel to begin identification of hideouts of criminals in all communities in the state.

Speaker of the state assembly, Honourable Mudashiru Obasa, said the Neighbourhood Safety Agency Bill, which was recently passed by the assembly, would go a long way in helping the security agencies to achieve the goal.

The bill, which currently awaits Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s assent, according to information gathered by Lagos Metro, among other things, seeks to empower the state government to raise local security officers who would be legally empowered to comb neighbourhoods, with a view to fishing out perceived criminals.

Obasa, while addressing leaders of the state command of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN), who paid him a courtesy visit in his office on Wednesday, pointed out that the bill was not meant to discriminate against existing security organisations in the state.

“Crimes such as kidnapping, robbery, abduction and assassination have been on sudden increase in the state.

“We are happy that we have people like you that are not being paid by the government, and yet are protecting the people and their properties,” he said.

In his remarks, the state commander of VGN, Jones James Udoma, said the group had been doing its best to secure the state, while lauding members for assisting the police to provide security in the state.