The Lagos State Law Enforcement Training Institute (LETI), has sensitised the Water Guards Corps of Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA), on new and strategic ways to optimise and ensure quality service delivery.
The Director-General of LETI, Prince Ifalade Oyekan, said the sensitisation programme was in fulfilment of Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s mandate to reposition and reorientate law enforcement officers, according to the THEMES agenda.
They are: Traffic Management and Transportation; Health and Environment; Education and Technology; Making Lagos a 21st Century state; Security and Governance.
Oyekan said that for law enforcement officers to live up to expectations, there was the need to train and retrain officers on global best practices.
He said LETI was adopting new training techniques tailored to the specific needs and duties of each law enforcement agency.
Oyekan urged the guards to be ready for the task ahead, as more people would ply the waterways as an alternative route, thereby placing more responsibilities on them.
He said it was, therefore, pertinent for LASWA water guards, to learn new ways to ensure efficient delivery of service.“If we must decongest and ease our roads, we have to move to water transportation because that is where we are headed.
“Also, due to the closure of the third mainland bridge, more people would make use of the waterways and your services will be needed more than ever.
“You have a lot of roles to play in terms of monitoring, pollution and regulations on the waterways.
“It is therefore important to enroll at the institute for your training needs and update your skills because you stand to gain a lot,” he said.
He said one of the new strategies to enhance their operations was the use of body worn cameras, which was one of the achievements of the institute.
Stressing the benefits of the body-worn camera, he said: “The idea is to change the way our security field officers operate.
“Every field officer will be assigned a camera and they will be able to capture offenders and violators, which will help the ministry of justice to prosecute their cases in courts based on the evidence produced from the body camera.
“It is also suitable for use at night and underwater.
“Also, everything captured will be transmitted to the central database of the enforcement agency and officers will not be able to tamper with the device.
“With this, there will be more transparency and officers will carry out their duties as expected.”
He also urged the officers to uphold integrity, professionalism and ethics in the discharge of their duties.
The General Manager LASWA, Mr Oluwadamilola Emmanuel, expressed enthusiasm towards the possibility of enrolling the Water Guards Corps at the institute for training.
“We need constant sensitisation and education, hence the importance of today’s sensitisation for the Water Guards Corps, LASWA.
“They have been taught the basic enforcement strategies to adopt to ensure efficient delivery of water transport services.
“The use of body worn cameras would also improve our operations because there are always accounts of incidents without evidence to defend or back up our case, but with this, we will be able to defend our integrity,” he said.
