Ambode: Lagos has 33,000 Policemen for Population of over 20 Million

Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, on Saturday made a shocking revelation: The state has only 33, 000 policemen providing security for over 20 million residents.

Ambode made the revelation during the closing session of the four-day leadership retreat for the state’s executive council, permanent secretaries as well as some heads of parastatals, Punch reports.

“We’re not yet where we want to be. We have only just 33, 000 policemen in Lagos for a population of over 20 million. Again, we don’t have control over these police officers. We need to let the Commissioner of Police leave this retreat believing that the Police need to own their own business just the way we have told ourselves that we want to own the business of governance. We need to see some things change. There has to be some form of paradigm shift; we want to see our police officers patrol in convoy between 12 midnight and 4am.

People must see improvement on it. That’s why on our part, we have gone out of our budget limits, using our resources from the Security Trust Fund, to say that, yes, it might not be within our budget, but we would spend money to support the Police because if the state is safe, the economy will thrive, ” he said.

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