Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu expresses readiness for the establishment of state police in Lagos State.
He announced a pool of 10,000 personnel prepared for immediate deployment pending constitutional provisions from the Federal Government and National Assembly.
Sanwo-Olu eagerly anticipates the rollout of state police, indicating plans to integrate the Lagos Neighborhood Safety Corps (LNSC) into the new force.
Sanwo-Olu said, “I am an advocate for it. I believe we needed it like yesterday. And the interesting thing is that we have the Neighborhood Watch and it is still functional, about 6,000 of them. The good news is that I have given approval for us to recruit additional 4,000 of them. And this is job for our youths, our able-bodied men.
“What that means for me is that if they give approval for state police, I have 10,000 men that I can further train and get them ready and these are people that know the entire community, the nooks and crannies.”
“I am waiting for it,” the governor stressed, adding that men of the neighbourhood watch, if empowered to bear assault rifles, will surpass expectations.
Sanwo-Olu said already “they provide intelligence at our state security meetings and you can imagine what happens if that is turned around to a proper security agency”.
State police has been a subject of controversy since the Seventh National Assembly and has failed to make it through the amendment phase.
This week, a Constitution Amendment Bill to introduce state police scaled second reading in the House of Representatives.