Officers of Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC) Should Carry Arms -Femi Falana

 

 

 

 

 

 

A human rights lawyer, Mr Femi Falana on Friday advocated the bearing of arms by the officers of the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC) to mitigate crime rates in the state through community policing.

Falana made the case at A-Day Public Hearing of a Bill for a Law to

Amend the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Agency for the Regulation and Control of Neighbourhood Safety Corps Activities and for Connected Purposes.

The public hearing was organised by the Lagos State House of Assembly Committee on Information, Security and Strategy headed by Hon. Adefunmilayo Tejuosho (Mushin Constituency I)

Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) commended the House for being thoughtful in creating the corps, saying that security of lives and property, remained the primary responsibility of the government.

He called for the expansion of the powers of the corps to carry out

functions of the police in the state as well as to protect corps members.

According to him, the country is under-policed and the state

government could by law create and empower security agencies at the state level to carry out functions that may be similar to that of the

police.

Falana said: ``My position is based on the constitution that if I can

go to the Inspector General of Police and apply for a licence to bear

arms and I’m granted, why can’t the Lagos State Government not be given licences for 10,000 young men and women to protect the rest of all? It is allowed by our law.

``If you set up an agency like this and you want them to arrest

criminal suspect in the society, you must arm them, otherwise their

own lives will be endangered.

``Therefore like prison officers, civil defence officers, customs officers and others bear arms, nothing should stop the Lagos State House of Assembly from empowering  members of the LNSC to bear arms.

``Unless we really guarantee the security of lives and property of every citizen, we are not going to get anything right. What the law does not want, what the law prohibited is a situation whereby I misuse the powers given to me by law.’’

Falana urged the House to be creative in protecting all citizens,

stressing that the Federal Government could not protect everybody.

He commended the Lagos State government for the state State Security Trust Fund and the creation of the LNSC, and urged the House to be very creative and vigilant.

``We are supposed to have one police man to 400 citizens, but right

now, only about 300, 000 policemen and women are guiding almost 200 million people.

``Our country is under-policed, they are ill-equipped and they are

ill-trained,’’ he added.

According to him, if there is abuse, the law is there to deal with any

officer who becomes over-bearing and over- zealous and violate the

right of citizens.

He said that members of the board should be constituted by accredited representatives of civil society organisations and the government for the agency not  to be an extension of the governor’s office.

On the proposed amendment requiring the corps to arrest urchins and area boys, Falana urged the House to task local governments to create employment for young men and women to ensure that they were productively engaged.

The human rights lawyer added that the agency should be empowered to enter uncompleted buildings to arrest people that are engaging in illicit activities that constitute danger to the community.

He said that officers of LNSC should also be involved in removing out- of-school children that are roaming streets, adding that the agency should liaise with prison services so that any prisoner released would be monitored.

In his remarks, the Chairman of the Board of LNSC, Mr Israel Ajao, who commended the House for the proposed amendments, said that the agency’s advocacy programmes for the sensitisation of communities would commence by January.

Ajao, who noted that LNSC would bridge the gap between communities and conventional police, called for attractive packages for board members rather than regarding their duties as part-time.

In her welcome address, Hon. Adefunmilayo Tejuosho, the Chairman of the Committee said that the amendment was aimed at strengthening the relationship anong the state government, the local government and the LSNC.

``We want our state to function better than other states, we want the

law to be stronger, and close all lacuna in this law.

``When we talk about policing, it must be community-based by the

people who understand the terrain of where they are policing,’’ she

said.

Earlier, the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, who was represented by the Majority Leader of the House, Hon. Sanai Agunbiade said that the proposed amendments was to strengthen the state security by empowering LNSC law.

Doing the overview, Agunbiade said that the House was proposing 31

amendments to the 32 section extant law, saying that the proposed

amendments conferred on the officers of the safety corps power to enter, search, inspect and arrest.

He added that the amendment also affected the function of the officers of the safety corps to embark on aggressive awareness and sensitisation campaign on the need for the people to be security conscious.

He said that the amendment also required that various local government areas contribute monthly subvention to the LNSC.