Lagos State Commissioner of Police Adegoke Fayoade is not new to Lagos having previously served as DPO (Ilupeju and Victoria Island) and Deputy Commissioner; he sat down with Assistant Editor TAIWO ALIMI to talk about his framework to policing Lagos, why he chose Police ahead of University lecturer and other issues.
You came in as Commissioner of Police in Lagos State in December of 2023, making it about four months on the saddle, what are plans or templates for policing a metropolitan city like Lagos?
I assumed office as CP Lagos on the 14th of December 2023. Before now, I served in Lagos first as DPO and as Deputy Commissioner in charge of State CID and as Deputy Commissioner in charge of Administration Zone 2, so I know Lagos very well. And before coming to assume office as CP Lagos, I have critically looked at the challenges ahead and prepared myself for the challenges.
Lagos, being the economic nerve center of Nigeria and indeed Africa with a population of, by my estimation about 30 million Nigerians, is not an easy place to police. I know there will be a lot of challenges and for Lagos to remain the economic nerve center of the country has to remain crime-free, so that investors all over the world can continue to invest in Lagos. And Lagos being a metropolitan with a high level of literacy, almost 100 percent literate people, you know you are policing a civilized people so you lift your game and ensure that crime is not allowed at all. Where it happens it must be minimal.
I drew out my plans and one of which I know other CPs have been battling with is removing motorcycle operators (okadas) from prohibited areas. From my experience of policing in Lagos, criminals hide under the guise of okada operator to operate because it is a very easy getaway for them once they rob their victims or try to get away with their loot. So, the government has always insisted that okada should not operate in certain areas. But, you know that the use of okada has been a means of livelihood, and the okada operators will not take it lightly. They will always violate the law and unless stricter measure is used they are not going to abandon the prohibited route easily. So, I know that is one of the things I have to tackle headlong.
Secondly, I’m aware of the fact that cult activity is also one of the things that disturb the neighbourhood, which I have to tackle. These young boys will just gather themselves and start terrorizing people in the community. They will form themselves into different groups and want to claim supremacy that this group is superior to the other and they end up fighting them selves. They even employ the use of lethal weapons; guns and what have you to fight themselves. Once they start the community is not at rest. Everyone will be scampering for safety and people will be running so as not to be caught in the firing that always occurs between two gangs.
I also discovered that traffic robbery was becoming prominent because once there is traffic; they will mingle with the traffic and begin to rob unsuspecting motorists and pedestrians.
I also discovered that the neighborhood must be well protected. The patrol should be intensified, especially night patrol and our men should be in the neighbourhood to prevent houses from being bugled in the night or invaded by these hoodlums.
Apart from these I also know that I have to sensitise the police force. I have to make them put more effort into serving the general public. That is to say, the DPO area commander should always be on their toes to supervise their men to do what they are supposed to do. One thing that I know is that once you give an assignment and you don’t follow up, you will not get results. So, you must be on their track every hour.
These are things I thought of before I came in and some of these things or all of these things I have to put in place to create a safer and secure Lagos. And since I came I’ve worked very hard with the support of my officers and men to restrict the okadas from operating in prohibited areas reduce traffic robbery and make sure that these boys don’t have their way easily robbing innocent Nigerians. I’m also working hard to ensure that attacks in neighborhood robberies, and stealing are brought to a barest minimum. Lagos is a moving city and not a sleepy one, police must be on their toes 24 hours, so most of our DPOs don’t have time to go to their homes, they remain in their posts to make sure that their boys are working very hard. In these last few months, we have made many discoveries; we have recovered so many arms and ammunition. We have been able to arrest a lot of criminals, armed robbers, and kidnappers, and made very good arrests that have led to relative peace and calm in our city and most of our neighborhoods.
Read Also: No to bully in schools
We have also been able to build more trust between the members of the public and the Police. Police are now more accessible and available to members of the public. I’ve also said that reporting cases must be made easy. How can it be made easy? It is for the police to change their attitude. They must be friendly, and able to listen attentively to the complaints, and they must accept complaints unconditionally and attend to them professionally and speedily. My idea of good reception in our stations is also gaining ground. Our officers must be conscious and attentive to the members of the public and I’ve always told them that they must exhibit high civility. The public must be respected and they must attend to them professionally. Once that becomes a habit, members of the public will automatically respect the Police.
So, all these we have put in place because, without the support of the people, we cannot police Lagos State well. Within the neighborhood, there are criminals, and cultists who live there and so unless we work closely with the society and we build trust we cannot get our service well delivered but once we can work with the members of the public, information will flow. Where criminal hideouts are, kidnappers and armed robbers will be easily exposed through this information.
And that is our target to nip criminal activities in the bud before it happens. Take the fight to their hideout and prevent them from coming out. Neutralize them before they attack. To make sure that crime doesn’t happen at all. And that is the strategy that we are emphasizing and what will give Lagos the ideal safety that we are looking for. Once crimes are not allowed to happen, people will feel very safe. To be proactive, to dominate the security space, and to ensure that crime does not happen.
The issue of trust that you mention will take me to the next question. During the last worker’s national strike in February, the Lagos Police came out distributing cold water and biscuits to protesters in Lagos in volatile areas like Ojota. How did you arrive at this model that has got a lot of people taking?
My philosophy of policing has always been people-centered. I believe that whatever policing that is put in place must serve the interest of the people. And that has been my style all along.
When the issue of the strike came to be everyone was expecting Lagos to explode and once that happens it goes round to other parts of the country. We had to put a lot of measures in place for this not to happen. We had a series of meetings with civil society, the labour union, the market men and women, and others. We appealed to them not to protest and if they must do it must be done peacefully. And we told them that if they must do it we would provide all the necessary security to make sure that hoodlums and those who want to use the situation to foment will not have their way. That is what we agreed on and on the day of the protest, I even promised them that I was going to be part of it. That I will move around with them. They thought I was joking.
So, on the day, they took off from the end of Awolowo Way and moved towards Alausa, and I was with them. Before the major protest, there was a civil society protest a day before and I gave them water and biscuits. They trekked from Ojuelegba to Maryland and they were going to the Fawehinmi Park in Ojota. I gave them water and biscuits and the second day I thought to myself if I could give those people water and biscuits, let’s do the same thing for the workers protesting.
The intention was to ensure that everybody remained healthy and strong throughout the protest and no one collapses. We don’t want any casualty whatsoever. We want it to be incident-free. So, I said let’s get water and biscuit so that we can energise the protesters. So, I got enough water and we had a biscuit for that matter. At the end of the day, we give glory to God, the protest was peaceful and there was no incident. Not a single confrontation. No one slapped anyone. We were just moving and exchanging banters in a friendly manner and we moved up to the National Assembly gate and the Majority Speaker and other members of the House came out and addressed them. Femi Falana SAN was there with other top human rights activists and it all went well.
You have said a lot about the sacrifice that your officers and men have to make to keep Lagos secure, what about their welfare? The welfare of the Police has been on the front burner for a very long time. What is your opinion on this?
I must tell you that Police welfare has always been improved upon even though there is still a lot to do, especially when it is compared with other police settings outside Nigeria. I must tell you that the job of the police is very tough. It is a herculean job. We work timelessly. No policeman works for eight hours like a civil servant. The shortest time a policeman does is maybe 12 hours and sometimes you may have to extend that 12 hours to 24 hours. So, there is a need for encouragement and better welfare. Succeeding governments have been trying and I know that the welfare of police will be a continuous one.
There are many hotspots in Lagos, like Agege, Ojota, Ketu, Ikorodu, and many other places. In these places activities of cult boys are rampant what is the Command doing to reduce to the barest minimum their activities?
Yes! We are doing something already to make the hot spots become soft spots. We have targeted these hot spots. I have the list of them and we are removing miscreants in all these places. Some of them might be taken over by the government because if there is no activity there, these miscreants and criminals will return to the place. We are going to make the raid a continuous one. In the last few days, we have taken about 1500 miscreants out of the hot spots and we are going to intensify our raid. I want to say that their numbers keep increasing and they are becoming a threat to the state. So, we will continue to intensify efforts to remove those who are criminals and those who have no means of livelihood, usually those who have turned to criminal activities. We will make the state too hot for them. Once they are arrested we shall take necessary action within the arms of the law. Our intelligence gathering and networks have also increased. We know their hideout and we shall continue to go after them so that these areas can be peaceful.
On a lighter note we want to know more about our CP, did you set out to become a policeman or was it something that was not planned for?
Yes! I set out from the beginning to be a policeman, not necessarily to be a policeman I wanted to do a uniform job. Two things I want to do in this world; one, to be a lecturer in the University, and the other to be a policeman or do another uniform job. When at a point I got enlisted in the Police, I also got the opportunity to be an assistant lecturer at a University. I was asked to come and do my Masters and be an assistant lecturer. I was confused and had to approach a cousin of mine who is more elderly. I said ‘These are the two options I have and they are coming at the same time. Which one do I take?’ He now advised me this way; ‘if you are a lecturer and you rise to the exalted position of professor you might even become a Vice-Chancellor, you will be useful to us but your usefulness will be limited to the four walls of the University, but if you become a policeman and you are lucky to rise steadily to the rank of Commissioner and if you are lucky get above it, before even before you get to that position, you would have done a lot for many of us. So, in terms of being useful to the community and to yourself, I think you should take this police option.’ That is why I took to that advice; I went to the Police Academy.
How do you unwind when you are not policing?
I love to watch news; and network news. I do some sports too. I play table tennis and tennis. And I love to watch films that are crime-related. And I also find time to stay with my family because we don’t have much time to be with them.
In terms of manpower and policing Lagos and Nigeria in general, do you think we have enough policemen, and if not is that not a hindrance to policing Lagos adequately?
We have a good number of policemen in Lagos, but that is not to say we have enough policemen. The United Nations standard is one policeman to 400 people. Presently what we have in Nigeria is lower than that. I don’t think we have attained that figure. By my estimation, we have about 600 persons to one policeman, but if this recruitment is going to be done every year; 30, 000 every year as promised by the government, and it is done judiciously, by 2027, we would have improved exponentially despite the rising population. If it is continuously sustained for another four years we might be able to attain the United Nations standard. Lagos needs more policemen. Lagos may be the fastest-growing city in Africa and the population is increasing every day being the economic nerve center of the country. Lagos needs more policemen. People are moving to Lagos and the interiors are getting more populated. We also need more police stations to cover those areas. I believe the Inspector General of Police (IG) is addressing this issue and very soon it will be taken care of.
How much support are you getting from the Lagos State government?
The support is tremendous. It is great. Honestly, it is commendable. They are supporting us and very soon about 250 patrol vehicles will be released to the Command. That is a huge support. In terms of logistic support, it is also very high and I will also thank the Lagos State government for this support. I don’t think that there is any other state that supports the police this much.
