Prince Abiodun, Ogun State Gov.
Drones, helicopters and other technological gadgets are now to be deployed in the task of combating crimes in Ogun State, the State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun has revealed.
According to Prince Abiodun, the state’s strategic location which made it the industrial, religious, and educational fulcra of the country is exacting a lot of pressure on its extant security architecture.
The Governor explained that the constant movement of people to the State due to its strategic location as the industrial, religious, and educational capital of the country has put a lot of pressure on the security architecture of the State.
His administration is therefore rising up to the task by deploying drones, helicopters, and other technological innovations to address security challenges in the State.
The Governor made this known while receiving the new General Officer Commanding (GOC), 81 Division, comprising Ogun and Lagos states, Major General Mohammad Usman, who paid him a courtesy call in his office at Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta yesterday.
He said, “we have recently acquired some drones and these drones are meant to help us in aerial surveillance, knowing fully well that it will be impossible for us to have enough boots to cover all the dark spots in the State.
“Because of that, we have chosen to deploy technology believing that with that, we can see where crimes are being intended to be committed and that can be neutralised before they are carried out.
The Governor disclosed that the State has requested a helicopter from the Nigeria Police to assist law enforcement agencies and the Inspector General of Police has obliged, adding that the helicopter has since been delivered to the State and any time there are distress calls, especially from kidnap situations, the helicopter will be deployed within minutes.
Shedding more light on the efforts of his administration to curtail security challenges in the State, Prince Abiodun said government has revived the OP-MESA and also set up a task force to patrol the Ogun State side of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to tackle the menace.
According to him, as a result of the intervention, kidnapping has been reduced to the barest minimum in the axis, promising to provide more support to the Forward Operation Base (FOB) on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway as well as the one at the Muhammadu Buhari Estate along the Abeokuta-Siun-Sagamu Expressway for effective performance.
Speaking earlier, General Usman appreciated the governor and the government for being supportive of the Army and other security agencies in the discharge of their duties.
He called for the empowerment of the men in the Forward Operation Base, along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, to enable them to confront cases of kidnapping.
The Army Chief said maximum cooperation was needed from the government to ensure that any threat of insecurity is nipped in the bud to prevent what is happening in other parts of the country from taking hold in the southwest.
