Residents, police strategise on security

No fewer than 500 hoodlums were arrested in Orile -Iganmu, a Lagos suburb, last year before peace was restored in the area, Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Trade Fair Police Station, Robinson Eregare, a Superintendent (SP), has said.

Eregare, who was DPO of Sari-Iganmu Police Station, urged residents to corporate with the police to ensure security of life and property.


He spoke at a seminar on community policing, organised by the Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC), themed: “Securing our environment.”

Security, he said, was everybody’s business because the police could not do it alone, adding that collaboration would make the community safer as it was when he was DPO there.
Community policing, he said, was necessary because policemen are humans and cannot be everywhere at the same time. “The police need useful information and a clear assistance from the community to arrest criminals,” he added.
Eregare urged residents not to entertain fear as information given to the police would not be leaked to unauthorised persons, adding that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Mohammed Abubakar had mandated his men to respond quickly to distress calls.

He identified poor road, lack of good education or upbringing, unemployment and bad parenting as some of the factors encouraging crime.

The community and the police, he said must collaborate to rid the community of criminals.
A landlord in the community, Reverend Zedekiah Omoregha, said crime rose in the area in recent times because of socio-economic reasons. “The robbers don’t come at night again they come at 6:00 or 7:00pm with all kinds of weapons to rob from one house to another and in the process creating unnecessary panic,” he said.

Source: The Nation