YEMISI OLUSINA
Ogun State Police Command has deployed its officers to tackle the recently reported cases of robbery and other criminal acts at Kara end of the Long Bridge along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
It has also warned hawkers on the bridge to stop all trading activities with immediate effect to allow it to sanitize the environment from being an abode for criminals.
READ ALSO: Police officer ‘involved’ in robbery arrested in Rivers
The Command’s Spokesman, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, made these known in a statement issued on Thursday.
DSP Oyeyemi said the deployment of the tactical teams was to complement the efforts of the divisional policemen in patrolling the area.
He added that the command had realised that criminals were taking advantage of the ongoing road construction work at Kara end of the Long Bridge to perpetrate evil.
He said: “It has also been discovered that some of the hoodlums are pretending to be hawking goods on the bridge during gridlock and using the opportunity to carry out robbery operations.
“To this end, the command is hereby using this medium to warn all those hawking goods on the bridge to quitting with immediate effect in order to sanitize the environment and deter the criminals from perpetrating crime on that bridge and anywhere around.”
The police boss said the Commissioner of Police, CP Lanre Bankole, who was on the Long Bridge today for on-the-spot assessment assured members of the public, especially the commuters plying the road, of their safety.
He stressed that the command would do everything possible to rid the area of the hoodlums.
Recall that The Nigerian Xpress reported that operatives of the Elekahia Police Division on Sunday arrested a Police Sergeant, Ibrahim Odege, and one other person ‘involved’ in armed robbery at Elekahia Housing Estate.
A press statement issued at the weekend by the State Police Command Public Relations Officer, Nnamdi Omoni, said that the two suspects were robbing people and dispossessing them of their valuables before they were arrested.
He said the timely arrival of the police led to the arrest of the two armed robbers whom he said were later identified as Sergeant Ibrahim Odege attached to the Operations Department of the Rivers Police Command and one Sampson Inomoghe from Nembe in Bayelsa State but resides at Rumuokwrushi in Obio/Akpor LGA.
