As a tax-paying resident of Lagos State, I have always felt happy with the way the state government shows consistent support to the police command in the Centre of Excellence, by providing adequate number of patrol vehicles and other needed logistics, under the aegis of the Lagos State Security Trust Fund.
It is perhaps no longer news that a lot of roads in the state are in urgent need of attention. In Ejigbo Local Council Development Area, the roads are in bad shape and the residents have for long been lamenting over the situation. As a Lagos resident, I rejoiced when the Ejigbo Police Division of the Lagos Police Command recently undertook the rehabilitation of a key road in the area, in laudable
The road, Biliaminu Akinsanya Road, which is off NNPC Depot Road, Ejigbo, had for long developed pot holes that widened as the days passed, thereby causing traffic congestions and accidents.
Moved by the spirit of patriotism and charity, the Divisional Police Officer in-charge of the division, Mrs. Olabisi Okuwobi, a Chief Superintendent of Police, CSP, mobilized her officers and men, and they engaged in the arduous task of mixing cement, granite and sand, to fill and patch the pot holes, with the support of few labourers. It is instructive that they contributed their own money and perhaps got additional support, to carry out the repairs on the road.
For people residing in Ejigbo, Jakande Housing Estate, Buknor Estate, Oke-Afa and the environs of the NNPC Depot, Biliaminu Akinsanya Road is a key link that connects the area to Ajao Estate through the canoe bridge constructed after the tragic Ikeja Cantonment bomb blast incident that claimed hundreds of lives.
The officers moved materials from their station to repair the road, to the admiration of the residents, who then volunteered and joined in the process to make Ejigbo roads passable in the meantime while waiting for a longer lasting reconstruction work promised by the Lagos State government to commence.
Being the first time the Nigeria Police Force would engage in corporate social responsibility of this nature, motorists and pedestrians could not hide their disbelief and shock that such good gesture could come from the much vilified security institution in Nigeria.
The NNPC/Canoe road was known for traffic jam, which made people spend hours on the road and cause headache for the traffic control personnel.
Oftentimes, CSP Okuwobi joined her men to control traffic at Jakande gate, NNPC Junction and the Canoe Road junction, to ease traffic jam.
Following the repair work done by officers and men of the police division, traffic flow has improved significantly. Residents of the area have been filled with gratitude to the police, except the hawkers who have been privately complaining that the free flow of traffic has drastically affected their sales.
By what CSP Okuwobi did along with the officers and men under her command, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Elkana Bala, said that the Ejigbo Police Division had given a practical expression to the beauty of community policing. I fully agree with this observation and do deeply express my appreciation to CSP Okuwobi and the Ejigbo Police Division. I urge them and other police formations to continue in the same spirit.
• Agatha Emeadi, a media practitioner, wrote from Lagos.