Ambode to miscreants: Return illegal weapons in four weeks or…

Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State, on Wednesday, presided over his inaugural Security Council meeting, issuing a four-week ultimatum to miscreants and persons in possession of illegal arms and weapons in the South-West state.
Briefing State House correspondents shortly after the meeting held at the Lagos House, Ikeja, the State Commissioner of Police (CP), Mr. Kayode Aderanti, said the major crux of the meeting was the charge by the governor to all security agencies in the state to mop up all illegal arms and weapons, often deployed by unscrupulous persons to terrorise innocent citizens.
He said Ambode was deeply concerned about the safety of life and property in the state and, therefore, urged all security agencies to ensure that Lagos is rid from the activities of criminals and hoodlums.
“It was a very comprehensive meeting, very exhaustive and we were able to have an overview of all the security issues involved in the state. We reviewed the security architecture of the state generally and we came to the conclusion that we need to work harder to assure the people of Lagos that under his watch, Lagos will continue to remain safe, Lagos will continue to remain investors’ destination and we are committed to keep doing that. How we can achieve that is to ensure that we keep Lagos free from criminals, free of hoodlums and cultists that are parading the state,” Aderanti said in a statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Habib Aruna.
He stated further, “In doing that, he further directed that we (security agencies), are going to give an ultimatum to all those individuals that are in possession of illegally-acquired weapons that are not licensed. We are giving them a four-week ultimatum. They should hand over all the weapons that are in their possession to all the area commanders in the state and after four weeks, we intend to take steps.
“We intend to do these to rid the state off weapons that we have termed as weapons of mass destruction, because they are using it against innocent people, our children, brothers, fathers and mothers. We believe we need to take them off and in doing that, the carrot and stick approach will be adopted”.
Aderanti, however, said security agencies would be forced to take decisive steps to recover all weapons after the expiration of the period of grace.
“But we are appealing to all those in possession of these weapons to please hand them over to the area commands in the state and moving forward, we intend to clean it off. We would do these within the four weeks of grace and we would have all these properly documented, captured and stored in the data base of the state government, the Police and the security agencies. This is one of the major decisions we actually we agreed upon.”
Aderanti said the meeting also touched on all matters relating to maintaining the peace and security currently being enjoyed in the state with a bid to ensure that every resident can move about freely without any fear of molestation.
“It is also the governor’s focus that under his watch, he would place much emphasis on security, and security is going to be the baseline. He believes that if Lagos State is secured, people will be able to come to the state and invest. He is looking at a situation whereby citizens can go out at night, anytime of the day, people can walk on the streets, drive at night, they can do whatever they want to do lawfully without being molested. If we have all these in place, then we can move forward and he can implement all his noble ideas and vision for the state,” the Lagos CP said.
Those in attendance at the meeting include the Director, State Security Service (SSS), Mr. Little John; Assistant Director, SSS, Mr. Salami Yinka; Commander 9, Mechanized Brigade, Major General Ahmed Mohammed Sabo; Commander NNS Beecroft, Olokun Apapa, Navy Commodore Daniel Ikoli; Commander Airforce Base Ikeja, Air Commodore Lere Osanyintolu and the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr Tunji Bello.