Lagos robbers sophisticated but… –CP

Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Alhaji Umar Manko, has assured that the police command was equal to the task of effective crime control, even as he admitted that robbers in the state have become sophisticated and daring. Speaking in an interview with Sunday Sun during which he confirmed drastic reduction of robberies due to the recent restriction of commercial motorcyclists by the Lagos State government, the Lagos police boss said robbers have resorted to the use of sophisticated weapons with the chief aim of countering the hitherto superior firepower of the Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) of the police.

“Armed robbers have gone too sophisticated to the extent that they now use weapons such as rocket launchers, hand grenades and General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG). This is because men of the underworld have discovered that we are dealing with them with Armoured Personal Carrier (APC). Normally, ordinary gun does not penetrate the APC, so they now go for weapons that can penetrate the APC,” he said.

Assuring Lagosians that, “we are equal to the task” , Compol Manko recounted his men’s recent encounter with violent thieves in which the bandits initially incapacitated police APC, but were eventually routed. “Just recently, we received a distress call from an estate in Ajah area of Lagos and our men raced to the scene with APC. It was like a war zone, as the robbers engaged my men in a shoot-out. The robbers used highly sophisticated weapons to the extent they were able to incapacitate the APC, but we subdued them. After the gun duel, we discovered 300 empty shells of bullets.

The unfortunate thing was that a banker and another civilian were wounded during the cross-fire.” The police commissioner said it was difficult to say who shot the two persons, because the gun duel was like a war situation. On the recent restriction of commercial motorcyclists by Lagos State Government, Manko said the order had taken the wind off the sail of robbers who operate with motorcycles. “The enforcement of the restriction order has yielded positive result because attacks on bank customers and Estates by robbers operating on commercial motorcycle have reduced drastically.”

Apparently due to reported attacks on Okada riders by some overzealous and corrupt policemen, the commissioner said: “I have warned my men not to cash in on the restriction to brutalize Okada riders or extort money from them.” He debunked the notion in some quarters that he was power drunk. “I am not power drunk, I swear. I am a human being who has feelings”, he said.