*Former Lagos Police Image maker transferred
The Inspector General of Police, (IGP), Mr.
Solomon Arase, yesterday ordered the immediate transferred of 870 policemen out
of Lagos State Police Command.
The transfer affected mostly Senior Police Officers(SPOs), beginning with Assistant Superintendents
of Police (ASP) upward. The transfer is said
to be the first massive ever in the Lagos Command.
The men are expected to soon start leaving in
batches to their new places of posting.
Sources said that more transfers, affecting the
police rank and files in the command would also soon commence.
The transfer has caused major panic in Lagos Command, as most of the places the officers are transferred to, are northern part of the country, where the dreaded Boko Haram sect are active.
A woman police, Deputy Superintendent of Police, attached to the Commissioner of Police X-Squad, at Command Headquarters, collapsed when she discovered that she had been transferred to Borno State.
She was rushed to the nearest hospital by her worried colleagues. The woman has been suffering from High Blood Pressure(BP).
One of those affected in the ongoing transfer is former Lagos State Public Relations Officer, (PPRO), Patrician Amadin. She was moved to Balyesa State.
According to Arase, the move was to inject
fresh blood into the command, which had policemen who had been stationed there
for over 10 to 15 years.
A police source however debunked the IG’s given
claim of injecting fresh blood into Lagos Command.
According to the source, the massive transfer
is connected to the FESTAC bank robbery, where robbers, numbering over 40,
stormed two banks. The robbers’ bullet killed a mother and child in their flat
and injured several others.
The robbers who entered FESTAC, 4th
Avenue, through the waterways, escaped with tons of money.
Policemen from FESTAC Command, Area E, were
said to have confronted the robbers. The policemen recovered millions of naira
and ammunition abandoned by the bandits as they fled at shootings from the
police.
Immediately after the robbery, Arase ordered
the immediate transfer of some policemen out of Lagos. The former Area E Commander, Frank Mba, was
among those moved out of Lagos.
The FESTAC robbery was the fourth time the
bandits, in military uniforms, would be attacking banks in the State. The robbers,
who usually come into Lagos via waterways, had once attacked banks in Lekki, twice
robbed at Ikorodu and the last one was FESTAC.
The last bank operation at Ikorodu, led to the
transfer of the former Commissioner of Police, Mr. Kayode Aderanti.
Speaking on the transfer of 870 policemen,
Arase said: “Most
of the police officers affected are no longer working. This was the reason the
Police Management Team decided to eject fresh blood and a new fighting
spirit. A good number of these officers had spent between 10 to 15 years in Lagos.
They have deviated from their constitutional role of protecting lives and
property, into various crimes and vices. This is contrary to rules and regulation
of the Force. I urge all well-meaning citizens to report suspicious persons to
the police. People, who give police information, would be treated with the
greatest urgency and confidentiality.”
The
transfer will lead to too many investigations, court cases, intelligence
gatherings and reports, to remain pending. Incoming officers will begin afresh to learn
the terrain and keep up with the old cases they inherited.
A senior police officer said: “Transferring
policemen is not the issue. The issue is to sit down, map out ways to stop
these bank robbers. Its high time police started synergising with other sister
agencies. Once these bank robbers
attack, a helicopter can be used to trail them on the waters. The former
Governor of Lagos State, Raji Fashola, provided the Marine Police with about
five speed boats, fitted with pump action machine guns, what has become of
those boats? There should be profiling of the robbers and the manner of their
operations.”
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