By Evelyn Usman
The Lagos State Government has donated five patrol boats to the Nigeria Police, with a view to enhancing effective policing of the water ways.

Speaking while commissioning the boats alongside additional ones provided by the Police authority yesterday at the Marine Police on Awolowo Road, Lagos, Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Princess Sarah Adebisi Sosan, said the donation became imperative following the use of waterways as escape routes by robbers .

She said: “The effective land policing led to the use of our waterways as escape routes by armed robbers in Lagos and this became another challenge for the police and law enforcement agencies of government. We quickly rose to this challenge by providing for the use of Marine Police, five patrol boats equipped with sub-marine guns and communication gadgets. The two tanks at the fuel dump at the jetty have also been replaced and new dispensing pumps provided for quick and efficient fuelling of the patrol boats.”

She maintained that the issue of security in any given society could never be over-emphasized as it was the fundamental right of every Nigerian after food and shelter. It was against this backdrop, that she recalled the launch of Security Trust Fund by the state government, to among other things,  provide adequate funding for effective policing and security of land and waterways in the state.

Re-instating the state government’s resolve to maintain zero tolerance for crime in the state, she said: “Crime has remained one of the societal ills of which the generality of our people suffer alike irrespective of status. We are aware of this situation in many parts of the state and we find it unacceptable, we shall not stand idly by; we will maintain zero tolerance for crime”

In his response, Inspector-General of Police, Mr Mike Okiro, who was represented by the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in-charge of Operations, Mr John Hamzat Ahmadu, pledged the judicious use and maintenance of the equipment in order to justify the purpose for which they were procured.