No fewer than 17 police stations have been burned down by hoodlums who hijacked the peaceful EndSars protests, the Lagos State police command revealed.
The police spokesperson in the state, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, who spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos said the arson was a huge set back for the enforcement agency.
“The implication of this is that money that has been set aside to do other projects and develop certain areas will have to be channeled into repairing these damaged stations.
“Also, it will make our work harder now because we will have to enhance our patrols in order to cover more grassroots areas that are normally covered by the burnt stations before.
“I doubt if some of the grassroots stations will ever function at full capacity again, taking into consideration the damaged vehicles and computer equipment that have been lost,” the officer said.
Mr Adejobi said that several reports had reached the command, alleging that hoodlums are attacking various neighbourhoods unabated as a result of the breakdown of law and order.
NAN reports that, last Wednesday, hoodlums took advantage of the breakdown of law and order to loot at Karonwi Avenue, Itire, Surulere.
It was observed that the looting started around 8.30 p.m. till midnight as several shops and houses were broken into and goods worth millions of naira carted away.
“However, the police have suffered a lot of damage, therefore, cannot quickly re-enforce officers to such areas of unrest because our vehicles and tools of operations have been destroyed,” he said.
The police spokesperson also said that the morale of police officers across the state has dropped because of the psychological effects of watching their source of income go down the drain.
“Every aspect of the economy has been put on hold, and a lot of repairs and catching up will have to be done once normalcy is restored,” he said.
Some of the affected police stations include Idimu, Igando, Layeni, Denton, Ilenbe Hausa, Ajah, Amukoko, Ilasa, Cele Outpost under Ijesha, disbanded SARS office under Ajegunle, Ebute-Ero, Mushin (Olosan), Ojo, Ajegunle where two patrol vans were set ablaze, Ikotun and Ojodu.
