INFRASTRUCTURAL REBIRTH AT LAGOS STATE POLICE COMMAND – AN APPLAUSE TO IGP KAYODE EGBETOKUN

By:Sesan Rufus Awobiye

In an era where public confidence is policing in Nigeria is closely tied to operational inefficiency, professional incompetence amid abysmal infrastructural decadence, the Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Adeolu Egbetokun has indeed again proved the inevitable.

His dodged visionary leadership acumen through putting a square peg in a square hole by posting capable officers to oversee strategic formations and departments within the Force has further been vindicated with his recent deployment of some officers across the country.

A classical case is that of Lagos State Police Command where the new Commissioner of Police, CP Olohundare Jimoh Moshood has taken the bull by the horn by changing the old narrative often synonymous with the Nigeria Police Force particularly operating under dilapidated and debilitating office structures and unhabitable working environment unfit for sane and civilized people.


To lay credence to the manifestation of good tidings evolving in the State Command, the Headquarters located at Muiz Banire Close, Ikeja GRA, Lagos now wears a fresh look of ambience sequel to the massive facelift and turn around maintenance carried by the Commissioner of Police on his assumption of office.


Curiously, this giant stride is being simultaneously and religiously replicated at the Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, Yaba of the State Police Command. This is by no means being spear –headed by yet another progressively minded new Deputy Commissioner of Police in the Department, DCP Dayo Akinbisehin. He himself is reputed to be a crack detective and veteran in aesthetic culture of turn – round maintenance of police assets, thus quietly impacting positively to the infrastructural renaissance in his successive postings across the country in Bauchi, Osun, Akwa Ibom Police Commands, amongst others.


In the old era of the inglorious past, the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, Yaba, Lagos itself was reputed as dreaded dungeon of crude and barbaric policing especially police brutality. Moreso during the dark days of the Nigeria Police Force where application of torture and extra judicial maiming and killings were the extant norms in handling police criminal investigation. This ugly trend institutionalized in State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti has led to public outcry and condemnation of the Nigeria Police as an institution of lawlessness and human rights abuse. Happily, the psyche and service delivery, have since changed overtime in Panti CID now complimented by the renovations of the existing structure. Indeed, a new era has come to stay in the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, Lagos going by the dynamic transformation in the Department.




To this end, the choice of the Inspector General of Police by deploying a new sheriff to Lagos State Police Command as well as a subordinate officer at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti could never have been faulted given the radical wind of infrastructural rejuvenation currently blowing in the Ikeja Police State Headquarters and State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti.




The current transformative initiative in Lagos State Police Command has asserted the power of collaborative policing between the Force and the Community it serves where stakeholders and public spirited individuals play pivotal roles in supporting the blue badges who stake their lives for them to live peacefully within the society.




It is indeed worthy of commendation to the Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun whose influence continues to inspire a new generation of Police leadership across the nation desirous in putting their maximum best in Police service despite the odds and parlous support from the government and the people they serve.