The Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has vowed to ensure that abandoned buildings do not become security threats in the state.
Sanwo-Olu, according to a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Gboyega Akosile, said this on Monday during a live interview on Arise TV.
The statement said the governor had received the list of abandoned buildings across the local government areas and local council development areas of the state which might be serving as havens for criminals.
“The popular thinking is that such buildings are occupied by criminals who use them to plan attacks. The government plans to take control of such buildings. Two days ago, I received a report of abandoned buildings across the state from Neighbourhood Watch. The list is about 250 pages with addresses and pictures of the buildings.
“We are passing this list to security for immediate response and action. All the preventable criminalities happening are because we have not agreed as a nation that there should be state police,” Sanwo-Olu said.
The governor also said efforts were underway to leverage biometric data for approval of commercial motorcycle operation in areas where it had not been proscribed.
The governor added that the state had procured a polymerase chain reaction machine capable of detecting the new variants of coronavirus.
This, he said, came ahead of the move by the state to build a world-class Infectious Disease Centre in Yaba to support research for diagnosis and treatment of contagious diseases in the future.
