Lagos Governor was advised by his colleagues to deploy Amotekun in the State to protect the lives and property of the people.
South-West Governors have kicked against the shabby treatment meted to Lagos Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu by a Chief Superintendent of Police, Abimbola Oyewole.
Oyewole, who said he was acting on the orders of the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami and Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, refused to comply with Sanwo-Olu’s orders that he should back down from the siege he and his men had laid on an estate in Lagos.
Hundreds of policemen had stormed the Magodo Phase 2 Estate area of the state to allegedly enforce a court judgment that gave the Adeyiga family 500 plots of land in the state.
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The residents of Magodo Phase 2 protested the police invasion. The Lagos State Governor attempted to douse the tension by asking the policemen to vacate the area. But Chief Superintendent of Police in charge of the siege, bluntly told Sanwo-Olu he wouldn’t.
The incident which happened on Tuesday at the estate was captured in a video that went viral on social media.
The Chairman of the South-West Governors’ Forum and Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, in a statement he personally signed, described the content of the video as disconcerting.
Akeredolu said the utter disrespect, which underlines the response of the officer to the Governor establishes, beyond doubt, the impracticability of the current system, dubiously christened “Federalism”.
The statement was titled ‘Southwest Governors: Police Officer’s Disrespect To Sanwo-Olu An Unacceptable Intrusion… Say Lagos Must Deploy Amotekun Now.’
It reads: “We are in possession of a video which has gone viral on the social media concerning the disgraceful exchange between a police officer, a CSP, and the Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwoolu, the supposed Chief Security Officer of the State, at the Magodo Residential Estate.
“The content of the video is very disconcerting, and this is being charitable. The utter disrespect, which underlines the response of the officer to the Governor establishes, beyond doubt, the impracticability of the current system, dubiously christened “Federalism”. An arrangement, which compels the Governor of a State to seek clarifications on security issues in his jurisdiction from totally extraneous bodies or persons, is a sure recipe for anarchy.
“We condemn, very strongly, this brazen assault on decency. We call on the IG to explain the justification for this intrusion. This is not acceptable. Any expectations of rapprochement between so-called federating units and federal security agencies are becoming forlorn, progressively, due to deliberate acts which mock our very avowal to ethics and professionalism.
“We condemn, in very clear terms, the role of the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami SAN in this act of gross moral turpitude.
“We, on our part, will continue to interrogate the current system, which treats elected representatives of the people as mere prefects, while appointed office holders ride roughshod over them as Lords of the Manor. If the purported Chief Security Officers of the States of the Federation require clearance from the office of the IG on matters within their areas of jurisdictions, only hypocrites will wonder why the current security crisis deepens and there appears to be no solution in the foreseeable future.
“We stand by our brother, the Governor of Lagos State. We advise him to deploy the Regional security outfit in the State to protect the lives and property of the people.
“We call on the President and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces to rein in the excesses of certain elements bent on acting in a manner capable of eroding the bond of trust existing between the people and the Federal Government. It is preposterous for political appointees to seek to undermine the very structure of service upon which their appointments rest.”
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