The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has called on the Inspector General of Police, Muhammed Adamu, to beef up security in Lagos State.

The call came following the ban of Okada and tricycle operators in some parts of Lagos State by the State Government.

NANS said the need to beef up security in the state is to ensure that “the State, which is evidently tending towards being volatile, is secured.”

The student body blamed Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for the ban on Okada and tricycle operators, describing the policy as “harsh and obnoxious”.

The association maintained that “the ban is a clear case of policy somersault and grand hypocrisy from the part of the government.”

According to NANS, “It is on record that Sections 15 and 46 of the Lagos State Transport Sector Reform Law, 2018 has addressed the operations of Okada and Keke Maruwa in Lagos metropolis, but, the Lagos State Government, in acting against the collective interests of the people and the stipulations of the existing laws, declared ban on their activities in six Local Government Areas of the State.”

According to a statement made available to DAILY POST on Thursday by NANS South West Coordinator, Kowe Odunayo Amos, the students told the police that blocking the source of income of thousands of young individuals would increase the high rate of unemployment in the state; a situation they said would bring a surge in crimes.

“The police authority must be told that thousands of persons that have been rendered jobless by the ban on this complementary means of transportation would definitely look for another means of livelihood, which would in no doubt, make crime more attractive for the people, resulting in high crime rate in a city that tops crime list in the country,” NANS said.

While calling on the Inspector General of Police to, as a matter of urgency and necessity, deploy more policemen to Lagos, NANS charged Sanwo-Olu to provide jobs for the unemployed youths, saying: “the State Government must know that we are determined, as an association, to resist this obnoxious policy while demanding for employment opportunities by the government for unemployed persons in the State.”