By Halimah Olamide
Amidst outcries over incessant robberies at the Gateway Polytechnic, Sapade, Ogun state, the Commissioner of Police on Tuesday higlighted new measures already taken to ensure security of students and the entire Ode community and its environs.
Commissioner of Police in Ogun, Mr. Abiodun Alamutu, in an exclusive chat with the NPO Reports on Tuesday said the reported suspension of physical classes by the institution was prior the latest steps taken by his command to provide cover for the community.
Alamutu said there are eight patrol teams fully mobilised to mount surveillance on the communities around the location of the institution adding that all stakeholders have been engaged to ensure that no breach of security happens again in the community.
“As I speak with you, we have put in place eight patrol teams: Two from the Command headquarters in Abeokuta; two from the Area Command in Shagamu; one from Ode Remo and three from Isara.
These eight patrol teams will now be working with the local vigilante groups and other security agencies in the local community to ensure that no case of robbery happens again,” Alamutu said.
The CP disclosed that the robbery that took place at the Tai Solarin University of Education which took place about two months ago had compelled his command to engage all tertiary institutions in the state towards activating a more reliable security network system that would make robbery and other forms of crimes a thing of the past in the state.
“That led the command to engage the tertiary institutions in a meeting held in Abeokuta and the Gateway Polytechnic was represented,” he said adding that the efforts led to the arrest f three members of a robbery gang that had terrorised the communities overtime.
“We are still investigating those ones when at about 3am in the morning of Saturday, we got a distress call that another robbery was taking place around Ode,” he said.
The CP said the students were just returning from a night party when some of them were attacked as they arrived their hostels adding that it was in the process of the robbers trying to escape police that they fired gunshots that hit one of the students.
Alamutu said with the last meeting he held with the authorities of the institution, the issue of suspension of physical classes no longer arise.
“All those were before we had the meeting with the school and all those measures put in place. For now, normal classes will go on at the institution. You can confirm that from the Provost of the institution,” Alamutu told the NPO Reports.