L.U.C. Lutio Lamin in his addressing statement to various garage owners across Freetown, stated that some criminals are in the habits of falsely obtaining vehicles from vehicle owners in pretends of hiring their vehicles for legal purposes.
It has come to the notice of the police that some hired vehicles are most times used by criminals as a device for armed robbery, while some hired vehicles were never returned to their rightful owners, instead, they are taken to garages where they can be dismantled and disguised in collaboration with garage owners as a result of organized crime in aiding and abetting stage managed criminals offences within the city of Freetown and other parts of the country, mentioned LUC Lamin.
Moreover, he continued to advise garage owners to desist from participating in such high profile criminal behaviors, if there had been any one among them involved or intending to get them self-involve in to a risky criminal acts of such nature.
In his strongest term, the LUC further warned that if any person or group of persons are caught operating as organizers of the crime or accomplice to the organizers in undertaking the offence, then the police will be left with no option, but to fully utilize the gravity of the law as stipulated in the country’s law book.
He also requested garage owners to register their various garages and become police partners in reporting and preventing crimes so that lives and properties would be secured.
However, as a result of protective measures for garage proprietors, LUC Lutio Lamin informed garage workers not to dismantle any vehicle for any person or group of persons who does not have legal documents for such vehicles in order to authenticate their service without risks and if provided documents are not satisfactory to the view of garage workers, then such documents and vehicle must be reported to the nearest police station without the consent of the so-called owners for further investigation by the police.
The Public Relations Officer at the Central Police Division, Inspector B.T.C. Grace Smith in her speech during the meeting informed the garage owners not to collaborate with criminals, but rather work with the police as participants in community policing, because, the police by itself could not work effectively without the help of civilians through the dissemination relevant information to the police.
