Christopher Oji
The Lagos State Police Command has arrested 71 suspected criminals in the state.
The suspects were picked by operatives of the Lagos State Task Force during raiding of dark spots in Oshodi area of the metropolis.
The Chairman Lagos State Task force, CSP Olayinka Egbeyemi, who led the enforcement team in an early morning raid, stated that the crackdown was a strategy to rid the state of crime and criminality.
Mr Egbeyemi said the exercise was in line with the determination of the Task Force to curtail the activities of hoodlums who rob unsuspecting members of the public.
According to him some of the suspects were in possession of substances suspected to be Indian hemp and other dangerous drug: Codeine, Skunk and Tramadol.
He said that identified black spots across the State would be continuously raided and arrested suspects would be charged to Court as the the present administration has zeros tolerance for all forms of crimes and criminality.
He said : “Lagos State is the most populous in Nigeria as well as its economic heartbeat. As such, the State government is committed to providing a conducive environment for both local and foreign investors.”
He, however, said that 13 out of the 71 suspects were released after screening by the agency while the only underage male among the suspects was transferred to the Lagos State Correctional Centre for proper rehabilitation.
Meanwhile, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, CP Zubairu Muazu, has ordered for the continuous raiding of blackspot in line with the State’s policy aimed at eradicating activities of miscreants and cultists in the state .
An underage boy, Hamed Gilani, who was referred to Lagos State Correctional Centre, confessed that he ran to Lagos from one of the neighbouring States after his parents separated and divorced.
Accoding to Gilani, 11, “I was running errand for the big men among us .
I was taught how to smoke Indian hemp when I started sleeping under the Oshodi bridge.”