Lagos CP
Lagos CP launches operation Flush after robbery report. Following recent complaints from residents about the resurgence of robberies and other disturbances on Lagos streets and roads, the state Commissioner of Police, Idowu Owohunwa, met with all area commanders, divisional police officers, tactical commanders, and other strategic officers on Thursday.
The CP started ‘Operation Flush’ to locate trouble places, notably along construction zones, and flush out criminals, mainly traffic robbers and other miscreants.
This is following PUNCH Metro’s report on Thursday that residents were lamenting over what looked like a surge in armed robbery cases on Lagos streets and roads.
A statement by the state Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, said during the Thursday meeting with area commanders, Owohunwa warned all the DPOs against dereliction of duty, vowing that any officer found culpable would be dealt with through laid down rules.
“He (the CP) equally charged them to review their respective security architecture in order to improve security in their respective areas and completely stamp out all forms of traffic robbery and other vices,” Hundeyin added.
“To bolster this stance, the CP has launched a state-wide operation to pinpoint specific trouble spots, particularly along construction zones, and apprehend criminals, particularly traffic robbers and other miscreants.” The operation, codenamed Operation Flush, begins immediately.”
The CP advised residents and visitors to the state to continue to assist the police in their efforts to combat crime and criminality by providing timely information and any other assistance that may be requested.
PUNCH Metro reported that armed robbers took cash and property on certain streets, including Lawani Street off Ishaga Road in Surulere, on the night of July 18, just as other neighbors warned robbery instances were now stretching to roadways, including during the day.
Residents in Abule Egba, Akowonjo, also complained of robberies committed by armed thugs in their neighborhoods.
“They robbed the (Surulere) area that week and the week after it,” a resident, Biodun, told one of our correspondents on Wednesday.
A woman who identified herself simply as Mama Sarumi, a trader along Benesther Junction said the hoodlums arrived at Akowonjo around 2am on July 13 and shot indiscriminately.
“They arrived in an LT Volkswagen bus with no license plate, and when they arrived, they began shooting in the air.” They stole my phone. They also robbed some of the people who sell here in the middle of the night, including myself, and took their phones and money. They weren’t even scared of the cops. They weren’t in a rush. They just divided themselves into groups and were ‘obtaining’ people.
“Many people ran into Oke, Ajani Akingbogun and Alhaji Idowu Streets. I don’t think the police can match them because they were not afraid at all,” she had told PUNCH Metro.