The Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Olorundare Jimoh, has declared that the state police command now responds to robbery and other public order offences within five minutes of being alerted.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Thursday, June 19, Jimoh said the police have significantly improved their response time from under 10 minutes to as little as five minutes.

“Our response time to crime is less than 10 minutes. We have even reduced it further to five minutes. Once you call us, under five minutes, we are there,” he said.

Jimoh assured residents that Lagos is secure, noting that police intervention often prevents crimes before they occur. He added that when incidents do happen, swift detection and response serve as a deterrent to others.

“For those crimes that couldn’t be detected, there is prompt detection to serve as a deterrence to others,” he explained. “For any would-be suspects who want to commit crimes, if you know that once you commit the crime, you would be apprehended, then definitely you have a second thinking about it.”

He further stated that violent crimes in the state are mostly prevented, while the few that occur are quickly addressed by the police.

On the broader issue of Nigeria’s security challenges, Jimoh dismissed calls for state police, arguing instead that increased funding for the Nigeria Police Force is a more effective solution.

“There is no doubt that state police are not the answer to our problem; proper police funding, which the Federal Government has taken upon itself, is the way forward,” he said.

He also pointed out that proponents of state police often overlook examples of successful unitary policing systems. Jimoh said the police have made progress in changing their approach and that traffic robbery in Lagos has been “successfully eradicated.”

Regarding the upcoming local government elections scheduled for July 12, 2025, he said the decision to restrict movement will be made by the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission. However, he noted that police would act if there were any credible threat to public order during the polls.

“If there is going to be a security threat that will threaten the election, then we will have to ensure that we enforce restriction which is going to be moderate,” he said. “It is not going to shut down the entire state because we are going to ensure that we have enough personnel to police the entire state.”