The Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Olorundare Jimoh, has claimed on Live TV that the response time of Lagos police officers to robbery and other public order offences is five minutes.
“Our response time to crime is less than 10 minutes. We have even reduced it further to five minutes. Once you call us, under five minutes, we are there,” the police boss said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Thursday.
Jimoh assured Lagosians that the state was secure and safe. According to him, the police get to the bad boys before they harm residents of the state.
He said most of the violent crimes in Lagos are constantly prevented by his men.
“For those crimes that couldn’t be detected, there is prompt detection to serve as a deterrence to others.
“For any would-be suspects who want to commit crimes, if you know that once you commit the crime, you would be apprehended, then definitely you have a second thinking about it but most of the violent crimes in the state are prevented,” the police commissioner stated.
Jimoh said state police is not the solution to Nigeria’s security challenges, but adequate funding for the Nigeria Police Force.
“There is no doubt that state police are not the answer to our problem; proper police funding, which the Federal Government has taken upon itself, is the way forward.
“A lot of people who are advocates of state police don’t look at where unitary policing is working,” he said.
The police commissioner further said his men’s behaviour has changed over time, adding that they have successfully eradicated traffic robbery in Lagos.
Jimoh said the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission would determine the level of restriction on movement during the July 12, 2025, local government election across the state.
“That is going to be determined by the electoral body if there is going to be restriction of movement in the state, but on our own, if there is going to be a security threat that will threaten the election, then we will have to ensure that we enforce restriction which is going to be moderate; it is not going to shut down the entire state because we are going to ensure that we have enough personnel to police the entire state,” he said.
