The Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, CP Hakeem Odumosu, has deployed additional 1,000 personnel to check traffic robbery in the state, the command’s spokesperson, CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday.

Mr Adejobi said the command had given motorcycles to policemen, which made it easier for them to manoeuvre and track traffic robbers.

“One chance, as it is popularly called in Lagos State, is one of the crimes we record where passengers are robbed and pushed out of moving commercial vehicles, and the command is mindful of this.

“This is why we have intensified our intelligence and are taking proactive measures to make sure the perpetrators are caught in their hideouts before they strike.

“What the CP has done again is to deploy additional 1,000 personnel to the traffic division of the state and they were given motorcycles to manoeuvre and keep traffic robbers in check,” Mr Adejobi said.

He added that the command had deployed policemen to fortify security at flashpoints and along most of the major routes in the states.

Mr Adejobi explained that traffic robbers usually operated on motorcycles or just trek to their victims in a hold up while one chance operators robbed passengers inside vehicles.

He said most times, commercial vehicles with registration numbers that could be tracked were used to perpetrate the act.

He urged members of the public to assess vehicles properly before boarding and also take note of registration numbers whenever they were not certain.

“One chance operators can easily be tracked as long as we have the vehicle registration number. This is what made it possible for LASTMA officers to intercept a vehicle at Aja recently.

“All we just need is for people to be mindful of the buses they board. Be sure to assess the kind of people on the bus and don’t just enter because you are in a haste to get to your destination.

“But we are mindful of the two incidents and their modus operandi. We have arrested many of the culprits and we will not relent,” he said.

(NAN)