Mop Up Operations: Police Recover Assorted Weapons In Lagos

At least 21 assorted firearms were recovered from non-state actors across Lagos in March, the Police Command said this on Friday.

It said it intensified illegal firearms mop-up in line with directives from the Inspector General of Police (IG) Alkali Usman.

Police Commissioner, Owohunwa Idowu gave the details at his maiden press briefing at the Officers’ Mess in Ikeja, where he also reviewed security operations during the last general elections.

According to him, the command adopted the concentric circle law enforcement principle to not only mop up these illegal firearms but track their sources.

Acknowledging that illicit firearms in the hands of non state actor was a challenge to law enforcement, Idowu said the police would not rest until the syndicate behind the proliferation were arrested, prosecuted.He said: “What we are doing is to continue to identify sources of these firearms. We do arrest, make recoveries and have coordinated approach in line with the directive of the IG to mop up illicit firearms within the public space.

“From the strategic approach, what we are doing is to not isolate the recovery of a firearm. If we recover one, we use the concentric circle law enforcement principle to track the source. That is the only way we can break the network behind the proliferation of the arms and I think it is beginning to yield result.