By Adeyinka Aderibigbe
Securing Lagos will be at the heart of talks at the Town Hall meeting slated to hold on Tuesday, at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of the Lagos State Security Trust Fund Dr Abdurrazaq Balogun has said.
Speaking at a Pre-event Press Conference in his office on Friday, Balogun said the meeting will afford Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu an opportunity to intimate corporate Nigerians, with the administration’s security vision.
Over a thousand critical stakeholders, including corporate organisations and eminent philanthropists, will attend the Town Hall Meeting, Balogun said.
Also expected to brief members of the public is the new Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, who is expected to give a comprehensive report of the activities of the police under his command and the strategies for crime prevention in the state.
Balogun said the Town Hall meeting is an annual occasion, where the Fund gives an account of all that it receives and how they were spent. He said this is with a view to engendering the trust of members of the public especially corporate entities to ensuring that they continue to donate for the purpose of securing the state.
He said: “Conversations around security has to change from being reactive to being proactive. We must also see why we need to continue to donate to the Fund in order to ensure that the state is kept safe.
He said though prevailing challenges in Lagos is not peculiar, to effectively police the magacity requires the cooperation of all to report crime on time to the relevant security agencies since the criminals are humans too.
He said the Find has advocated the massive deployment of technology based gadgets and artificial intelligence gadgets and tools to complement the effort of policemen whose number are too few to effectively police a megacity like Lagos.
He said one of the innovations of this year’s Town Hall is the introduction of Mentemetre, which would enable guests to ask the governor questions and get answers in real time from everywhere across the state.
He said all agencies of government including men of the Task Force, the RRS and the LASTMA have been mobilised not only to provide security but to ensure free flow of traffic at the Civic Centre.
Balogun while fielding questions said the Fund has injected no less than N23 billion in kind into the state’s security architecture, with the state being the largest single donor to the Fund.
He said if divided over the last 13 years, it means the Fund injects yearly about N2 billion, which according to him remains paltry when compared with the huge challenges that policing the state entails.
He therefore urged all corporate organisations operating in the state to continue to partner with the government in the onerous task of ensuring the safety of lives and their investments.
Balogun said the Fund is determined to provide the interventions required to continue to make Lagos a safe place for businesses and members of the public.
He said the Town Hall meeting is going to be used to solicit for more funding in order to strengthen the administration’s capacity to better secure the state.