A car vandalized during Traffic Arm robbery

The Lagos State Police Command on Monday urged residents of the state not to report traffic robbery and other crimes first on social media but to the nearest police station.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Joseph Offor, who made the appeal on Monday, said the reports would help the police in strategising on how to combat crimes and forestall occurrence.

According to report, Commissioner of Police, Mr Fatai Owoseni, lamented that Nigerians were fund of reporting crimes first on the social media.

He noted that reporting first to the nearest police station would help the police to prevent further occurrence.

He also spoke about how some distress calls were actually blown out of proportion and advised the residents to always verify their information before causing panic.

The PPRO added that making false reports of crime incidents on social media was a cheap blackmail against the leadership of the Nigeria Police.

``People should endeavour to report every road traffic robbery to the police station so that we will know who to hold responsible.

``This will help us to strategise and come against those people behind the crimes.

``We are not denying the fact that we have a couple of traffic robberies here and there but we have arrested some of the suspects.

``We have also prevented some of them that were about to be committed.

``When somebody is a victim of a crime, he knows where to go,’’ Offor said.

``If you go to a police station to report, it will help us to have the statistics of crime being committed in that area; it will also help us in our planning.

``It will help us in our research but when people decide to report their cases to the social media, we see it as a cheap blackmail against the leadership of the Nigeria Police.

``And this is worrisome because it is not helping our statistics.’’

According to Offor, people making crime reports on the social media are not helping the system as planning and strategising cannot be based solely on statistics got from such reports.