Mega city status: Ambode charges law enforcement officers to be proactive

As Lagos State continues to evolve as Africa’s fastest growing Megacity, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode has stressed the need for efficiency in law enforcement, charging all the law enforcement agencies in the State to be more proactive in enforcing the laws that would impact positively on the people as well as restore sanity to the society.

Governor Ambode, who was speaking today at the year 2016 annual mandatory in-service training programme for law enforcement officers in the State Public Service, noted that law is only effective when it is enforced to bring significant development to the society, emphasizing that, it is the enforcement of the law that brings about orderliness and balance in the society.

The Governor, who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Dr. Idiat Oluranti Adebule, implored various law enforcement agencies in the State to be proactive in their duty and discharge their responsibility in a way that people will have confidence and trust in both the law and the law enforcement officers.

As law enforcement officers, the Governor reminded them that they are the face of the law and urged them to make professionalism the hallmark of law enforcement, assuring that his administration will continue to place high emphasis on law enforcement and give serious considerations to all possible innovations that could positively impact on the effectiveness of law enforcement agencies in the State.

According to him, “The enforcement of the rule of law is a cardinal objective of our administration. As a result, we pay a lot of emphasis on law enforcement and constantly give serious consideration to all innovations that could positively impact on the effectiveness of our law”.

While urging the law officers to take advantage of the training to update their knowledge, he promised that his administration would continue to strengthen various law enforcement agencies and ensure they attain desired level of professionalism required to enforce the law in a megacity like Lagos.

As a demonstration of this commitment, the Governor stated that his administration recently inaugurated the Special Offences Mobile Court to summarily deal with growing cases of traffic and environmental abuses in the State with a view to bringing sanity and civility in the conduct of residents especially on environmental matters.

He further disclosed that the Lagos State Neighborhood Safety Corp Law was recently passed by the State House of Assembly to ensure safety of lives of the residents, adding that his administration would stop at nothing to guarantee security of lives and property of the residents.

Ambode stated that the Lagos State Law Enforcement Training Institute is statutorily required by law to train and equip Law Enforcement Agencies with requisite skills needed for the assigned task, affirming that the Institute from inception has effectively trained a total number of 11,841 officers from the State.

Earlier in his address, the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Adeniji Kazeem stated that the present administration’s interest in strengthening law and order inspired the Governor’s directive that all State law enforcement agencies must undergo mandatory refresher training.

The Commissioner noted that the Institute was set up to formulate and implement training standards in line with global best practices, to ensure ethical behaviour and promote professionalism among various Law enforcement operatives of the State with particular emphasis on traffic and environmental law enforcement.