Fake calls are choking Lagos emergency hotlines
New government data shows millions of prank and non-emergency calls are overwhelming Lagos’ response system.
Lagos State’s emergency response system is coming under growing pressure as millions of fake calls and non-emergency calls continue clogging emergency hotlines meant for people in real distress.
New operational data released by the Lagos State Government shows that nearly seven out of every 10 calls received through the state’s emergency numbers between January 2025 and April 2026 were classified as nuisance calls.
The figures, presented during the state’s annual ministerial press briefing in Alausa, Ikeja, reveal the scale of disruption facing one of Nigeria’s busiest emergency response systems.
According to the Commissioner for Special Duties and Intergovernmental Relations, Olugbenga Oyerinde, the Lagos State Command and Control Centre received about 24.15 million calls through emergency lines 767 and 112 during the 16-month period.
Out of that number, 16.39 million calls, representing roughly 67.9 percent, were categorised as fake, prank, or non-emergency traffic.
The consequences are already affecting response operations.
Government data showed that approximately 5.47 million incoming calls went unanswered within the same period, while the abandoned call rate rose sharply from 9.3 percent in January 2025 to 37.6 percent by April 2026.
Officials warned that if the current pace continues, more than 7.2 million calls could go unanswered by the end of 2026.
The Lagos State Command and Control Centre coordinates multiple emergency agencies across the state, including ambulance services, the fire service, traffic management authorities, and neighbourhood safety operatives.
But the growing volume of fake calls is increasingly forcing operators to spend time filtering irrelevant traffic before actual emergency cases can be handled.
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The data also exposed another major concern: despite the massive number of nuisance calls recorded, only 39 cases were officially categorised as hoax calls requiring legal follow-up.
The General Manager of the Lagos Command and Control Centre, Femi Giwa, explained that nuisance calls and hoax calls are treated differently within the system.
“A nuisance call is a non-emergency call made to disturb, distract, or waste the time of emergency responders without necessarily giving false information, whereas a hoax call is a deliberately false report of an emergency or incident intended to deceive authorities and cause unnecessary panic or response,” he clarified.
Still, the figures have raised broader questions about enforcement and public accountability.
While the Command-and-Control Centre supports enforcement against false emergency reporting, the government did not outline any major sanctions or prosecution efforts targeting individuals responsible for repeatedly abusing emergency lines.
The report also did not clarify how many of the fake calls came from accidental dialling, deliberate pranks, or misuse by repeat offenders.
That distinction may prove important as the state attempts to modernise its emergency response infrastructure.
To reduce the pressure on human operators, the ministry announced plans to deploy artificial intelligence-driven call screening systems capable of detecting nuisance or fake calls before they reach response agents.
The technology, expected to be introduced before the end of 2026, is projected to reduce operator handling time by about 35 percent.
The state also plans to increase emergency call agent capacity by 40 percent, introduce automated callback systems for abandoned calls, and deploy real-time analytics dashboards for monitoring emergency response activity.
The operational data further revealed unusual spikes in nuisance calls during September and December 2025, periods where fake and valid emergency calls reportedly occurred at nearly equal levels, though officials did not provide explanations for the pattern.
As Lagos continues expanding rapidly in population and infrastructure, the pressure on emergency systems is expected to increase further.
But the latest figures suggest the challenge may no longer be limited to emergency capacity alone. It is increasingly becoming a question of public behaviour, enforcement, and whether genuine distress calls can still cut through millions of distractions in time.
