‘How we smashed cult syndicate, gang rape’

The Lagos State Police Command has revealed how the dreaded Awawa cult syndicate, which terrorised residents of Agege area, was smashed, leading to the arrest of over 40 members, including a lady.

The five-man-gang was said to have been led by the lady. The gang specialized in rape and robbery.

The Divisional Police Officer (DPO), in charge of Isokoko Police Station, Mr. Ifeanyi Owo, a Superintendent of Police (CSP), revealed this during a meeting of the Eminent Persons Forum (EPF) of his division.

Owo said that the achievements of Isokoko Police Station wouldn’t have been possible without the cooperation of members of the community.

He said: “It is the pioneer station in community policing in Nigeria. The benefit of community policing is enormous. It bridges the gap between the police and members of the public. It restores the confidence of the public on the police, removes the fears and suspicion of the public on the police, makes room for accountability to the community by the police and makes the job of policing easier as the community feels free to provide useful information to the police, who in turn make use of the information to nip crime in the bud.”

Lanre Ogunlowo, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, (ACP), who is the Area Commander, Area ‘G’ Police Command, Ogba, said that Eminent Persons Forum was an initiative of the present Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris.

Ogunlowo said: “The idea is that we cannot have enough.  What it entails is bringing the police and the community together, increasing the trust level, boosting the reassurance gap. The police cannot do it all alone. We deal with the community and members of the community know their community. If we choose to work as partners, together, we can achieve a better result.

“It’s not an avenue for the police to lord their own idea on the community. But rather, to agree with the community on how we can resolve our day to day challenges. Like we always say, the police have their own method of controlling crime. We’ll go on patrol. We’ll do intelligent gathering and other measures.  But the fact remains that every community, has its own peculiar challenges.”

 The challenges at Isokoko are not the same with Victoria Island, or Ikeja GRA. So if we want to adopt the same method as bench mark, we cannot achieve maximum result. The police and the people can do better if we adopt local solution to our local problem.”

He said that every member of the community cannot be member of the Forum, adding that every person here represented a particular section of the community, the streets and the neighbourhood.   

“The basis for it is that we will always listen, but we will continue to ask for more in terms of your cooperation, in terms of your information in terms of assistance”, the Area commander said adding that “where in your own opinion, you feel we are not doing enough you can always let us know. This is not about interfering in our work or telling us how to do our job, it is because the service is meant to be delivered to you. You are the end users because if we say we are working and you are not seeing what we are doing, then we are wasting our energy and resources.”