The Commissioner of Lagos State, CP Sylvester Abiodun Alabi is one year old in the saddle as the state police Commissioner. In a short while, the Police Chief would have hanged his next rank as Assistant Inspector-General of Police AIG and would be exiting the state. In this encounter with our Albert Uba, the highly cerebra policeman says his greatest challenge as Commissioner of Police of the state was fake news adding that he is however, happy that he had inculcated professionalism on his officers and men. Excerpts.
This is one year since you took over the mantle of leadership of the Lagos State Command.tell us your experience so far.
Very nice experience; enriching and buoyantly fulfilling, I am glad I have been able to justify my posting to Lagos Command by doing what I know how to do best; by ensuring the safety of lives and property in Lagos by making the environment very conducive for businesses to thrive and people going about their lawful businesses without any apprehension or fear.
What has been the responses of sister agencies with the Police in the fight against crime and criminality in the state.
Very marvelous and highly encouraging, we have had harmonious and cordial relationship; very robust relationship. You know, when I came on board one of my cardinal points is that I was going to foster inter agency collaboration and work in synergy with other security agencies, and that I had done for the past none year and that has actually assisted us in fighting crime and criminality to the barest minimum in the state. I want to say here that the intelligence unit like the DSS has availed us a lot of intelligence and information to work with and I would not fail to mention the importance of the Neighbourhood corpse, Lagos state agency, these are the people that living in the various communities at the grass root level with their information and the intelligence availed us it has been able to help tremendously to nip some crimes in the bud. Then the issue of especially, when we have every call all of them to support us, they never hesitated to support us which actually assisted us further to ensure that Lagos state is safe and secure for all.
Tell us your most challenging experience while superintending over the affairs of Lagos security wise.
Fake news. Fake news; that was the most challenging experience. Yes, because you know that a lost of people peddle rumours, unfounded rumours that cause a lot of apprehension and panic, you will agree with me that when there is apprehension and panic, the security situation will be challenged. For example, you will agree with that there were information passed through online that the Fulani had stockpiled arms at a Housing estate along Badagry Road, which was never true. A lot of people called me, even with due respect, my IGP called me to find out whether what he was hearing on the news was the truth. Whereas, flatly it was complete false. Nothing like like. There was nothing like that. Another one was the issue INEC not registering people around Alaba area , which is not true. This can cause a lot of problems especially, from the Ibos who may think they want to be disenfranchised, which is not true. That was the reason why I organized a seminar on the danger of fake news and invited all the journalists to say let us talk on the issue on the danger inherent on the dissemination of fake news which is not good for our security. So we had a fruitful deliberation and fruitful seminars. I think to a large extent, we are not experiencing fake news anymore like we used to have. But that was the challenge we had otherwise, what we call security challenging are thing that are surmountable that are not really affected us in any way.
What would you say is your legacy for the officers and men of the Command?
Professionalism! I have been able to inculcate and indoctrinate the people that they have to be professional to the letter. And to be sincere, it shows in my officers and men today. That is the reason we had drastic reduction in civilian Police face off. Because I used to read it before I came here, but there is what we call policing with human face, human milk of kindness.
In a very short while, you would gotten your well deserved rank as AIG, what would you liked to be remembered for as CP Lagos?
I would want to be remembered as somebody who came to Lagos to maintain and improve on the security situation of Lagos because all of us are aware of how Lagos was before I came in. My predecessor did his best during his own time, I was able to maintain what I met on ground, and improved upon it. So I think that is what I want to remembered for to say that yes, I came maintained what I met on ground and improved upon it and leaving behind a security situation has endeared to the people to have confidence to move about any fear of apprehension in their minds in Lagos.
If you had the opportunity to recommend somebody as CP Lagos, what caliber of person would you recommend?
Of course, I would recommend another competent officer who should be able to raise the bar beyond what I am leaving now; somebody who should be able to improve upon what I am leaving behind and raise the bar higher.
Is there anything you want to tell us that we didn’t ask you?
Well, the only I want to say is that I want to sincerely thank the people of Lagos state particularly the Governor of Lagos State, His Excellency, Babajide Sanwo-Olu for his untiring and tireless support for the police, to ensure that we succeed in our onerous task to ensuring the security of lives and properties in Lagos state. And to the good people of Lagos State, I want to thank them for availing us the needed information that helped us in policing the state to the maximum, , believing in us because we have been able to bridge the gap between members of the public and the Police through the PCRC, meetings with critical stakeholders, setting up of various committees by building confidence between them and the Police. I really want to thank the people of Lagos because I had their tremendous support while I served. Through their SMS, WhatsApp messages, some people that I don’t even know out of patriotism availed a lot of information that really helped us in securing Lagos state.