Boko Haram: Police beef up security in Lagos

Posted by admin Lagos, Latest Politics, State News Friday, June 17th, 2011

SECURITY in the Lagos metropolis and the state police command in Government Reserved Area (GRA), Ikeja, has been beefed up following the bombing at the Louis Edet House, Headquarters of the Nigeria Police Force, in Abuja yesterday.

Besides, the Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has warned that Nigeria risks descending into anarchy if nothing is done to address the problem of insecurity that is threatening lives and property in the country.

The movement of persons, including personnel of the Nigeria Police to the headquarters of the Lagos State Police Command, was restricted as people were screened before they could gain access to the premises.

The anti-terrorism and the anti-bomb squads of the command were put on red alert and located around the major command in Lagos State, including the Police Force Headquarters Annex, Kam Salem House in Moloney, Obalende, Lagos.

The security screening at Ikeja, GRA, triggered a serious traffic snarl in the whole of the area as vehicles which went through Oba Akinjobi Way and Archbishop Vining area were made to undergo security checks before they could proceed.

A police officer told The Guardian: “It is Force Headquarters today, who knows where it would be tomorrow, so, we have to be more alert now.”

Another police officer attached to the anti-terrorism squad said “anti-terrorism personnel have been deployed to all the major parts of Lagos, including area commands to avert any bad situation.”

When The Guardian contacted the Nigeria Police spokesman, Mr. Olusola Amore, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, he simply said “Please I am busy, I will call you.”

The ACN in Lagos expressed worry about the bombing, saying: “For suicide bombers to successfully infiltrate the police headquarters, it is a sign that the security situation in Nigerian is getting intractable.”

It, therefore, charged the Federal Government to wake up from its slumber and secure the country for Nigerians.

In a statement in Lagos by its spokesman, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, the party wondered what was left of the country’s security if bombers could effortlessly break the security walls of the country’s police and detonate bombs so easily in the police headquarters.

It said that the latest bombing of the Police Headquarters in Abuja was a sure warning that the country’s security had irretrievably collapsed, and feared more bombings were under way if the security agencies did not live up to expectations.

“We have been inundated by sterile and empty threats and vows of arresting the masterminds of each fresh bomb incident and such vows have always ended as rituals, which are kept in store for another bomb incident and the violent circle goes on unhindered. We are not amused that the country’s security agencies have failed woefully to track the spates of bomb blasts that are targeted at Nigerians such that nowhere is considered safe again. We are even peeved the Federal Government has demonstrated a worrying ineptitude to stem this violent conflagration and the bombers seem to know this worrying impotence, hence the unceasing audacity of their continued actions.”

-Guardianwp_posts