Nigeria Police Warns Against Indiscriminate Construction Of Unmanned Community Gates

The Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Shina Olukolu has warned against indiscriminate construction of unmanned community, street gates and criminal use of motorcycles aimed at abducting innocent victims.

SP Fadeyi Olugbenga, Police Public Relations Officer(PPRO), Oyo State Police Command in a release issued, signed and made available to Naija Today News warned people against the careless acts capable of increasing the security tension in the communities and Oyo State as a whole.

In his words, "The Commissioner of Police wishes to draw the attention of members of the public to the indiscriminate construction of unmanned security gates in our communities and streets. The practice though appears to be a response to a security need in the cause of a communal review of the security architecture of their environment. 

But, a professional review of the situation has shown that the strategy does not achieve much as criminals in our midst have continued to breach the constructed gates which are now more or less a monument of no value", said PPRO. 

In his continuation, "recent experience of the Police in response to distress calls have been frustrating and delayed the ability of the response teams to arrive promptly at the scene of incident i.e. Armed Robbery, Burglary, Attempted Armed Robbery etc.

The Commissioner of Police therefore wishes to admonish/advise all and sundry to be circumspect in the construction and installation of unmanned security gates in their environment. In as much as it is agreed that we have the right to protect our lives and properties, it is professionally advisable that while we lock our doors and gates against intruders, we should be mindful of other exigencies/emergencies that may require our prompt and quick escape in case of any emergency".

Olugbenga said, " hence the keys to our padlocks should be readily available. This same analogy applies to security gates that are constructed to purportedly secure our environment. If there is need at all to install security gates, we must endeavour to make them accessible to security agencies, particularly the Police who may be responding to distress calls or other emergencies like fire or other life threatening health issues".

"In the same vein, the Commissioner of Police also wishes to advise members of the public to also be wary of suspicious commercial motorcycle operators who may want to deploy their means of transportation as an easy means of abducting their innocent victims". "This applies particularly to parents, guardians and the aged whom we often put in care of motorcycle operators that we know nothing about their background and character, thus placing so much trust on them to convey our underage children to school or other places and they are also trusted to return same to our homes even in our absence". 

"This practice is open to abuse by the mischievous and criminally minded motorcycle operators in our midst. For instance, a case in point was the story of a commercial motorcycle rider, under the pretext of avoiding the Task force took two youngsters far beyond the destination of the gate of their school which was the pre-arranged destination.The distress call of the youngsters attracted the by-standers and the Police team to come to their rescue while the hoodlum was arrested and being interrogated".

Olugbenga stated,"it must be noted that in view of the security challenges, the criminally minded individuals in our midst are obviously deploying all kinds of strategy, tactics and means to carry out their nefarious activities.Nonetheless, the Police will not relent in its efforts to protect the lives and properties of the citizenry and ensure that they operate and carry out their lawful businesses in a safe and secured environment". "The members of the public are therefore enjoined to partner with the Police to engender a better service delivery" PPRO admonished.