Governor Babatunde Fashola has urged policemen in the state to owe their allegiance to the law and the people of Lagos State alone.
Fashola gave the advice on Monday during the handing over of an ICT Resource Centre at the Area C, Police Station, Surulere, Lagos.
The governor said that while policemen and their families were entitled to vote during the elections, they must remain neutral when on duty.
“Let me remind you that you are policemen to the people of Lagos. Because it is important to make this point, especially as you prepare for elections and as we seek to have a violence-free election that is very important.
“The elections will have no meaning if we lose lives in the process because democracy is actually supposed to respond to peoples’ needs not to take their lives.
“So, let me remind you that whatever sentiments you have, you are entitled to vote, so are members of your family.
“But remember that once you wear this uniform, you are not policemen to the APC and you are not policemen to the PDP, you are policemen to the people of Lagos. Do your jobs according to the law and may God help you as you do so.”
Fashola also used the opportunity to express the gratitude of the government and the people of the state at the way and manner the police had carried out their duties and stressed that the ICT centres were to aid in the quick delivery of justice.
The governor said that the police must ensure that their environment was kept clean and free of objects that were usually scattered in their premises.
“All over the world, where I have seen police stations, they are very clean environments and I believe that the environment in which people do their work also reflects the way, their attitudes and the way they see themselves.
“And we want you to work in a very clean and appropriate environment that boosts your own personal self-esteem and makes you feel happy if you come to do your work.
“But in addition to that, what we have seen over the past years is that in the process of either, even just dealing with simple accident cases where there is no fatality, we keep the vehicles that are accidented. Over time their value depreciates; over time their owners lose interest in them.
“In the event what do we do? We auction them but it was just an accident and in all the time that I practiced in court, I can’t recall one case in which those vehicles were brought to court as exhibits. So, the question we have asked is that why are we keeping them?”
In his remarks, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Kayode Aderanti, thanked the Lagos State Government for its contributions to the police in the state and said that the ICT centres would aid in the delivery of justice in the state.
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