We will flush out militants, vandals from Lagos —Ambode

Lagos State governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, has vowed that the state government would deploy its entire arsenal to ensure that militants and vandals threatening the peace are flushed out of the state once and for all, even if it meant shutting down some locations where they seemed to be hibernating in terms of any commercial trade.

Governor Ambode made this vow on Wednesday when he received the Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr Idris Ibrahim, who was on a visit to the Lagos House, Ikeja.

The governor said the recent military onslaught in places such as Ikorodu, among others where such criminal elements had been hibernating was yielding positive result, assuring that all efforts would be made to sustain the success recorded so far.

“Again, we need to sustain and ensure that these people do not go back to the creeks. On our part as a government, whatever it is that it takes to take the militants and vandals off Lagos, we are going to do it, if it means shutting down some locations where they seem to be hibernating in terms of any commercial trade, we would do it and make sure that we guarantee the lives of our people and whatever it takes in terms of financial support for the security agencies to sustain the success, we would do it,” he said.

Speaking further, Governor Ambode expressed appreciation to President Muhammadu Buhari for approving the military onslaught against the oil thieves in the affected areas, even as he also thanked the Nigeria Police and other security agencies “in our fight against the militants and vandals that we have embarked on in this Operation Awatse in the last one week.”

While thanking the Chief of Defence Staff and the Acting IGP for their joint effort in the fight against the attacks, Governor Ambode appealed for more police presence in the state to secure the lives and property of the over 22 million population in the state.

Speaking on the crime rate in the state and the need to secure waterways in the state, Governor Ambode specifically requested for more police patrol of the waterways, assuring that his administration would play its part by ensuring the welfare of officers in that line of duty.

Earlier, the IGP, who said he was in Lagos to visit some police formations in the state, commended the state government’s support and cooperation to the police and other security agencies in recent time, saying that the synergy between security agencies and the Lagos State Government was worth emulating.

He also commended the Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF), saying that it was a model that other states of the federation could take a cue from.

“When I was Commissioner of Police in Kano State, we had to travel to Lagos to understudy the Security Trust Fund. So it has served as a model for other states in the federation,” the IGP said.

He also promised that the police would continue to deploy the best of its officers in the country to the state.