Absence of Police, LASTMA, FRSC the situation in Lagos.

 LAGOSIANS have expressed worry over the continued absence of policemen on major roads and streets in the state.

For instance, many vehicles stationed at flashpoints in different parts of the state to ensure police presence, have been removed.

A drive round Lekki area of Lagos showed that police vans usually stationed at the Lekki Phase 1 and 2, Ikate and Ajah areas, had disappeared. Also, the Armoured Personnel Carriers, APCs, usually stationed at flashpoints, were not seen.

Areas like Mile-Two Oke, Cele, Isolo and Toyota bus-stops had no police presence as it used to be before the attacks on policemen and police formations by hoodlums who hijacked the #EndSARS protests.

Commuters plying the Mile-2/Badagry expressway are the worst hit at the moment as traffic robbers dispossess them of cash, telephones and other valuables, daily.

In some areas, hoodlums extort Lagosians who could not  beat the 8pm to 6 am curfew time because of traffic.

Also absent from the roads are officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, and  the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, who complement the Police in traffic control.

As at yesterday, some officials of the Lagos State Neighborhood Safety Corps, LNSC, were seen controlling traffic at some points, including members of the National Youths Service Corps, NYSC, and community youths.

At Pako, Oke-Afa area of the state, some community youths were seen with sticks and other hard objects which were used on defiant motorists. Before their arrival Wednesday night, motorists were trapped for close to three hours at the junction, as everyone attempted to outsmart one another.

In the face of the panic, some Lagos communities have hired the services of members of the Oduua Peoples Congress, OPC, to checkmate crimes. Vanguard reliably gathered that these OPC members assisted in the arrest of some hoodlums, who partook in the attacks on policemen and invasion of some COVID-19 warehouses, where palliatives were carted away. Some of them were apprehended with items looted from malls in Surulere and other parts of the state and handed over to the Police for prosecution.