By Emmanuel Daniji

Residents across Lagos may have a little more reason to be alert as the state police command says it has arrested 80 suspects and recovered firearms, ammunition, six vehicles and other items in a series of operations carried out across the state.

The Commissioner of Police, Fatai Tijani, disclosed this on Wednesday at the command headquarters in Ikeja, saying the operations were aimed at tackling armed robbery, traffic robbery, vandalism, recruitment fraud and other crimes.

According to him, police operatives recovered four Beretta pistols, eight locally made pistols, four live 9mm ammunition, six mobile phones, six battle axes, four cutlasses, a toy gun, five sacks of suspected illicit drugs, vandalised iron materials and electrical wires.

Tijani said nine suspects were arrested over alleged vandalism along the Coastal Road, while another 19 suspects were arrested in Tori-Lovi Community, Age-Mowo, over alleged recruitment fraud.

The 19 suspects, comprising 17 men and two women, were accused of luring members of the public with fake employment opportunities.

The police boss also disclosed that 29 suspects were arrested over alleged traffic robbery along the Lekki-Epe axis.

In Ikorodu, a 43-year-old suspected receiver of stolen vehicles was arrested at Ishawo Agric. Police said four vehicles and seven number plates were recovered from him.

The vehicles included a black Lexus RX 330 Jeep, a 2018 white Toyota Camry, a 1999 white Toyota Camry and a red Ford vehicle.

Tijani said the suspect allegedly received stolen vehicles from members of a criminal gang, three of whom were still at large.

The command also reported the arrest of 14 suspects in Maroko over alleged public nuisance and the arrest of a suspected gang leader linked to an attack on a military officer and his family in Itire.

According to the police, the incident happened on October 4 when hoodlums allegedly blocked the officer’s vehicle, assaulted him and his wife, collected ₦300,000 and vandalised their vehicle.

In another case, police arrested a 28-year-old suspect accused of drugging a woman in her Ikeja apartment and stealing three mobile phones valued at ₦3.02 million.

The suspect allegedly gave the woman juice mixed with a substance suspected to be a hard drug before taking the phones.

Three other suspects, aged between 25 and 38, were also arrested over alleged armed robbery and phone-snatching incidents around Westminster and Marine Bridge, with three phones recovered.

Police further recovered a stolen 2015 Toyota Corolla allegedly taken from the suspect’s uncle in Enugu and brought to Lagos for disposal.

Tijani said the command had also raided identified criminal hideouts, leading to the recovery of suspected illicit drugs, cutlasses, battle axes and other items.

He described the operations as part of the command’s intelligence-led approach to crime prevention and urged Lagos residents to continue providing credible information to the police.

The arrests are allegations at this stage, and the suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court.

The police commissioner assured residents that the command would continue its operations against criminal networks and work to protect lives and property across Lagos.