TheCable

Hakeem Odumosu, Lagos commissioner of police, has placed operatives of the force on red alert around correctional centres in the state.

Olumuyiwa Adejobi, spokesman of the Lagos police command, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.

He said the commissioner gave the directive to area commanders, mobile police commanders and commanders of tactical operational units in the state during a meeting in Ikeja on Tuesday.

This development comes after a correctional centre and the police command headquarters in Owerri were attacked.

The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) said 1,844 inmates escaped after the attack in Imo, but as of Wednesday, only 78 of them have returned.

Adejobi said the commissioner charged the commanders to assess current structures and brainstorm on better ways of improving security around correctional centres and other vulnerable places in Lagos.

“The Commissioner of Police engaged them in an interactive session to assess and brainstorm on having better security structures in the state and to prevent any attack on police formations, correctional centre and vulnerable places within Lagos State,” the statement reads.

“The meeting agreed on many strategies to be adopted including robust intelligence gathering, surveillance, sectorising the state for easy policing, constant patrol and deployment of personnel to strategic places, multi-agency collaboration, amongst others.

“The police boss gave clear directives to the full implementation and enforcement of the strategies emplaced to achieve the goals of effective security of the state generally.”

The spokesman said Odumosu also hosted Francis Adebisi, controller of correctional service in Lagos, at his office on Wednesday.

He said the commissioner vowed to sustain the deployment of mobile operatives to correctional centres in the state.

Odumosu also promised to partner with the correctional service and other stakeholders to improve on the criminal justice system in Lagos.