Chioma Igbokwe
Residents of Lisa community have called on the Inspector General of Police to assign personnel to run a police station, which they constructed to bring security presence closer to them. Lisa is a village in Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State, occupied majorly by Egba people and they rely on farming as a means of survival.
This plea was made by Chief Oladele Najeem Odugbemi, Baale of Lisa, after receiving an award from the Crime Reporters Association of Nigeria (CRAN), during its 2018 lecture and awards ceremony where he was nominated as the Most Security Supportive Monarch of the Year.
Dedicating the award to the community, Odugbemi said it was the joint effort of residents in the community who supported community policing by alerting them of any security threat in their area that has kept them safe: “I am security conscious that was why I constructed a police station that is up to a divisional headquarters standard and it is 90 percent near completion.
“This was done four years ago and since then we have reached out to the former CP and the current one to help draw the attention of the IGP to that project. We are begging the police authority to come and commission the place and give us personnel.
“While we were waiting endlessly, I erected another building for our vigilance outfit, Vigilance Service of Ogun State (VSO). That one has been completed and commissioned in September 3, 2017.
“I have been managing the outfit and ensuring that the staff are paid, and as at when due. We want to appeal to the current CP, Hammed Iliyasu, to assist us to reach out to the IGP and get an approval for the community.”
Odugbemi is chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Odus Petroleum Company Limited. He is a philanthropist and financier of the annual scholarship awards for indigent students of Lisa community. He also empowers artisans who have completed their trainings by assisting them financially to set up their own businesses.
People from far and near also enjoy his kind gestures. It was in his quest to further reach out to the people that he set up the Oladele Odugbemi Foundation, a non-government organisation saddled with the responsibility of impacting positively on the society through its programmes and activities.