The Lagos State Police Command claimed on Monday to have received intelligence regarding threats by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to attack Lagos State.
It added that the command has also noticed security threats from the agitators of the actualisation of the Yoruba Nation.
According to him, 24 Yoruba Separatist groups are currently on the command’s radar.
The command however said nothing about threats from Fulani herdsmen whose activities are getting more noticable along the Lagos Ibadan Expressway or the influx of okada riders of northern extraction into the Lagos metropolis.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, who disclosed at a stakeholders’ forum on security chaired by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu at the state secretariat, Alausa, Lagos State, said that the state’s Police command is up to the task of ensuring the safety of Lagosians, adding that several strategies have been put in place to neutralize these threats.
He noted that the state’s police command has taken different proactive strategies, including, periodic intelligence-led raids of criminal hideouts, securing and assigning patrols to the nooks and crannies of the state with inclusion of the border points, the establishment of pin-down points at strategic locations, organising security summits with other security agencies, community leaders, and other stakeholders.
He added that there have been provisions for gunboats and back-up patrol boats to cover Lagos waterways against crimes in the state.
His words, “The threat of IPOB to attack soft targets in Lagos is equally being put on the radar of the Command intelligence gathering and other security services in the state. Strategies are being put in place to neutralize their activities.
“The Command is using this medium to solicit for the support of all and sundry to be vigilant at all times and report any suspicious person or movement to security agencies. Let us adopt the slogan of “when you see something, say something.”
The immediate past Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, had accused the IPOB of perpetrating various attacks on police and other public institutions in the Southeastern region of Nigeria.
However, IPOB has since been denying any involvement in the recent attacks in the region.
