Lagos Begins Community Policing As Sanwo-Olu Inaugurates Operations Teams

Lagos State has taken an auda­cious step towards improving security in all communities across the state, with the inau­guration of State Community Policing Advisory Committee (SCPAC) and its operations arm, State Community Polic­ing Committee (SCPC).

Governor Babajide San­wo-Olu, on Wednesday, inau­gurated members of the two committees at a ceremony held at the State House in Alau­sa, pointing out that the event marked a turning point in the government’s deliberate effort to re-strategise and rethink the security architecture using Community Policing Initiative as proposed by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mu­hammed Abubakar Adamu.

According to the governor, the security initiative is long overdue, adding that the re­form is being implemented with the objective to address inadequacies of the current policing model, which, he said, had failed to engage members of local communities and neighbourhoods in knowl­edge sharing and intelligence gathering that could help in nipping crimes in the bud.

Membership of SPAC includes: representative of the Commissioner of Police, DCP Etim Oqua Efiom; representative of traditional institution, Oba Momodu Ashafa; Muslim community, Bashorun Sikiru Alabi; CAN representative, Bishop Stephen Adegbite; PCRC representative, Prince Yemi Adenowo; representative of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Mrs. Blessing Abiri; representative of the Lagos chapter of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, Mr. Lookman Aminu; representative of people living with disabilities, Hon. Israel Akiode, representative of the Nigeria Bar Association, Prince Dele Oloke, and representative of the Lagos chapter of National Council of Women Societies, Alhaja Sikirat Agoro.

Abass Latifat