Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has said plans were on to make any landlord whose tenant was found guilty of any criminal act in the state to forfeit his property to the state government.
This came as the state Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development disclosed plans on working out measures to revolutionise the system of obtaining building approvals, with a view to reducing the bureaucratic bottleneck in accordance with the existing laws and guidelines.
MEETING: From left: Oba Riliwan Akiolu, Oba of Lagos, Alhaji Olusegun Kazeem, representing Chairman, Board of Trustees, Lagos State Security Trust Fund, Goveror Babatunde Fashola of Lagos, chief host, and Alhaji Musliu Smith, fomer IG of Police, during the fifth Town Hall Meeting on security with Governor Fashola in Lagos, yesterday. Photo:
Fashola made the remarks yesterday at the 5th Town Hall meeting on security, organised by Lagos State Security Trust Fund, LSSTF, on Victoria Island.
He said: “The state can no longer condone any criminal act and that is why we decided to review our security strategy.
“One of the decisions that we have taken to further nip in the bud criminal cases is that we will fence the entire community more because criminals live among us.
“Every one of us must take the responsibility of exposing criminals living within our community; that is why we have resolved that in any home we find criminals or is used as hideout for criminals in the state, we will consider and justify revoking the title to that property and acquire it for public use.
“The method of crime in the state are getting complicated and security is not cheap. The only way is for the state government and the residents of the state to invest in this funds so that we can buy additional 500 patrol vehicles, 200 patrol bike, 20 Armoured Personnel Carriers.”
He told the gathering that the state government “lost a total number of 124 policemen in encounters with armed robbers between January 2007 and September 2011.
“We should honour their memory by pledging more support for their comrades-in-arms for, in spite of the dangers, the security personnel have continued to respond to distress call once they were alerted.”
He also commended the team of 21 police officers that “investigated and stormed the hideout of heavily armed robbers and kidnappers resulting in the arrest of three members of the gang, the rescue of three kidnapped victims and recovery of a haul of dangerous weapons, including rocket launchers”.
He said the challenges of security and law were a growing threat all across the world, adding that the world was increasingly plagued by ideological, religious and economic challenges, and that countries like the United States, Britain, Greece and Italy, which used to act as shock absorbers receiving millions of immigrants, were facing grave social and economic problems.
Lagos State Commissioner for Police, Mr. Yakubu Alkali, also expressed support to the state government’s stance on revoking titles of property owners over criminal acts.
Reviewing the spate of crime in the state, Alkali said that crime rate in the state had increased tremendously from October to September 2011 as against the previous year, where low criminal cases were recorded.
He said: “Notable among them is car theft which has become frequent occurrence in the state, and drivers and servants are mostly responsible for this nefarious act.
“In the year under review, 522 armed robbers were arrested, 164 armed robbers died during encounter with the police, 328 arms were recovered and 3, 553 ammunitions were recovered from robbers in the state.”
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