Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State said the state is ready to deploy 10,000 officials of the state security outfit, Neighborhood Watch, for state police.
Sanwo-Olu stated this during a media chat in Lagos on Thursday.
The governor said the Neighbourhood officials will be deployed immediately the Federal Government and the National Assembly firm up constitutional provisions for the establishment of state police.
According to the governor, men of the Lagos Neighborhood Safety Corps (LNSC), a uniformed security agency established by a law of the Lagos State House of Assembly in 2016, would be pulled out to join state police.
Sanwo-Olu said, “I am an advocate for it. I believe we needed it like yesterday. And the interesting thing is that we have the Neighborhood Watch and it is still functional, about 6,000 of them. The good news is that I have given approval for us to recruit additional 4,000 of them. And this is job for our youths, our able-bodied men.
“What that means for me is that if they give approval for state police, I have 10,000 men that I can further train and get them ready and these are people that know the entire community, the nooks and crannies. I am waiting for it.”
The governor added that men of the neighbourhood watch, if empowered to bear assault rifles, will surpass expectations.
Sanwo-Olu said, “they provide intelligence at our state security meetings and you can imagine what happens if that is turned around to a proper security agency.”
Recall that a Constitution Amendment Bill to introduce state police passed a second reading in the House of Representatives.
President Bola Tinubu and 36 state governors had considered the creation of state police as solution to the menacing security challenges like kidnapping and banditry ubiquitous in the country.
