Develop family codes for safety- RRS commander
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Commander of the Lagos State Rapid Response Squad, Assistant Commissioner of Police Olatunji Disu has urged families to develop safety codes to alert members of danger.
Addressing the publishers of community news at the Monthly Community Media Forum organized by the Lagos State Office of Community & Communications at the Ministry of Local Government & Community Affairs, Disu said families can improve their safety with such codes.
His words: “it could be as simple as drawing the curtains to alert members of family coming in that there is danger at home or shifting the location of the flower pot”
He gave example that the mere mention of a local delicacy which he does not like by his wife in a phone conversation is a reliable tip that his family is endangered.
“I don’t like ikokore, (referring to a meal made from yam popular among the Ijebu) but my wife cooks it and my friends like it. Anytime my wife calls me and asks if she should cook ikokore for dinner, I know there is trouble at home.”
After letting out the secret, Disu assured his listeners that he would change the family code.
He said the codes can be a form of gesticulation, a facial gesture or some body language.
“Is it possible to give your daughter a handshake in a particular way that she would understand the message? That is a family code.”
Reviewing the efforts of the RRS to combat kidnapping, Disu, who headed the anti-kidnapping and the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Rivers and Oyo states before he was deployed to Lagos said the police have been able to checkmate robbers on the Lagos mainland.
“There was not a single bank robbery last year. This shows that we have been able to cover the main metropolis effectively. The major crime is now kidnapping mainly in the creeks.”
He assured that kidnappers would be brought as new measures have been designed to tackle them.
These, he said, include on-going collaboration between the army, navy and the police heavily funded by the Lagos State Government.
He praised the introduction of the decoy team into the operations of the RRS as the key to the unravelling of several kidnapping and other crimes.
Crimes bursted by the team, according to Disu, include:
* the rescue of Sen. Iyabo Anisulowo
* the arrest of phone racketeers at the Computer village, Iolkeja
* the arrest of the thief and the retrieval of laptop and accessories belonging to Professor Collier, a visiting international scholar
* the arrest of a corporate thief who attends seminars and conferences uninvited to steal laptops and projectors during tea breaks.
Disu urged the public to resist any form of extortion by policemen by sending text to the RRS or the Commissioner of Police to report the officers.