The Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu was guest of the hugely popular ARISE TV Morning Show hosts today. Their conversation touched on everything around the #ENDSARS Protest as well as the Governor’s message to the people of Lagos State and Nigerians in general. TheGBJournal followed the conversation. The Excerpt we bring you.
‘’It is a very tough time but it is a time when leadership must indeed stand up and stand out. So I want to call on everyone to use this opportunity, use this time to engage one another and come together so that indeed we can take our State further, we can heal our wounds, we can have true, real, genuine reconciliation and we can build a Lagos that indeed would be a better Lagos for all of us. I am committed to that. I will not stop until I achieve that.’’-Sanwo-Olu
THUR, 22 OCT, 2020-theGBJournal- The Governor was asked (rephrased); Have you called or spoken to the President (Muhammadu Buhari ) regarding the events in the state?
I have called him (President Muhammadu Buhari). But I was made to understand that he was in the Federal Executive Council Meeting. He was actually the one that asked the Chief of Defence Staff to call me and I think it was when he got my message.
So, I haven’t spoken to him directly, maybe later today I will call him again and so I don’t have a report to say that this is what he said or anything, because we haven’t spoken.
Regarding the level of destruction we have seen, every time I see a video of the destructions I was escalating my attempt to be able to stem and be able to halt the level of destructions that we were seeing. For us, in going forward, we will ensure that we don’t have a repeat of what we saw yesterday.
On the promises he made to ENDSARS protesters.
The promises are still valid. We promised to set up a Judicial Panel of inquiry and that has been inaugurated. The Panel is headed by Retired Justice Doris Okwuobi and they were inaugurated on Monday after transparently informing our general citizens.
The Panel also include other members with impeccable records including Ebun Adegoruwa, SAN, and members recommended by their various bodies. I do not know the members of the Panel personally. As for Ebun, I never met him until I was doing the swearing in for him.
The Panel also include a retired Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), a Human Rights activist who was also recommended, there is a Director from Lagos State Judiciary and there is meant to be one Youth Representative from amongst the protesters. But they got back to me to say that one is not good enough for them-make it two- and we immediately agreed to two youth representatives. They will have to go through their own internal processes to determine who those two youths will be. We are still waiting and we would want to have them.
The Panel have said it openly, that they need them to be in the sitting. So I am using this opportunity to again appeal that the representatives of the youth who are among the #ENDSARS protesters to please bring up the two names and let this Judicial Panel get to work as soon as possible.
The other thing that we have done is, at the first instance, set up a N200 million fund and what we said to them (the Panel) is that they have the absolute right to determine who, and what each person get. They have the right to determine that, and all they need to do is say to us, these persons need to be paid this certain amount and the check will be immediately presented to them.
How they run the Panel is fully at their discretion-at open sessions and closed sessions, the number of interviews they want to grant, the number of public engagement they want to seek, it is fully at their own sitting and we have given them all the rights without any form of hindrance.
That Panel is still openly available. So please let us not forget the whole essence of this protest and this is something that everybody worldwide has recommended. The only way we can take it forward is to activate all of the requests and requirements.
For families that have been brutalised by SARS in Lagos, we have asked them to come forward-those that have unfortunately been killed, come forward, those that have had incidents or any forms of criminality, please come forward. There are telephone numbers, there are emails- they have been publicised. Where they (the Panel) will be sitting, the publication to that effect is also in the public domain.
So let all of us take full advantage of this and let us see real and genuine reconciliation happen in our environment and system so that indeed, we can take this forward and we all can learn from it. So that behaviours that are unacceptable in our society are totally condemned.
His take on Community Police and Policing
About the State Police, this is a conversation that predates my swearing in as governor and it is still something that we have also taken forward and continued to agitate on. In any true federalism, this is one of the minimum things that we need to be able to have a closure with the federal government.
I think it has taken too long. It has taken so much pain. The frustration for all of us is real. Each one of us can indeed truly, really pay as much attention to our state police force. It is something that we require for security at our various state.
And if you see our own modest attempt with the Lagos State Security Trust Fund. We have a Board that does direct intervention for the police-helping them in terms of procurement of vehicles, ammunition, uniforms, building better shapes to their offices etc.
You can imagine, if we indeed we have a full state police, how much we can still do, how much employment we can generate and more importantly how much local knowledge that we would have. The whole idea about local police is not just in the fancy name, it is actually community policing, it is actually the ability to know the real troublesome people in the neighbourhood, knowing the black spots in the neighbourhoods, knowing areas to concentrate on in the event of any security challenges and that is how it happens in other parts of the world. We can respond quicker and faster. These are some of the little gains.
The federating states need to be able to have this power, we need to be able to have the authority to have state police and be able to fund them accordingly so that we can have the right citizens-to-police ratio. I will say that in Lagos it is far lower than what it should be.
We currently have a modest attempt around our neighbourhood watch. We use our neighbourhood watch for intelligence gathering, to contain small riots and issues in communities and they are doing great things. They are about 10,000 of them.
So you can imagine if we can have such modest attempt what we could be doing if we have all of the rights and privilege to have full state police. We can double employment in the police force in Lagos State. It will just become a critical need for us.
Security as you can see is paramount. It is something we cannot take for granted. It is something that gives investor confidence in and around our environment. That is what investors want, that is what organised private sector want, that is what the international community want and that is what brings investment into your community. So, it is something that we will continue to agitate for. We will not stop until we begin to see the real and genuine reforms that we all are clamouring for in our country.
The second question around the integrity of the cameras, sitting down here I can say to you that I am sure that they are in safe-keep. And in the event of any tampering, we will get experts to see if they are tampered with. It is a way to show real transparency and I can assure you that I will ensure that nothing is left undone.
When the investigation into the Lekki incident will start
The panel for that we can set up over the weekend. We are still in a curfew now and I want to believe and I hope that that will be behind us (in terms of movement) in another one or two days. So we can indeed say that on Monday they should be able to start once we get the panel constituted over the weekend.
Counting costs and why fire service could not respond to the blaze in the city
Unfortunately we lost about 5 fire trucks yesterday. We lost all fire stations, burnt by hoodlums. Our first respondent fire officers were also attacked and so they all had to run for the sake of their own dear lives. You saw that the LASEMA building was burnt in Lekki. There were also other buildings at Cappa that we had to secure. There were attempts to burn the high moving vehicles also, so they had to retreat.
Our fire trucks were destroyed. Every attempt they (the firemen) made to want to come out, they met hoodlums and they had to retreat. There are evidence to show for the disruption and the burning. So the firemen had to retreat for their.
I have been on the phone with the Director of the Fire Service trying to ensure that her men are safe. So that is why you did not see them respond.
The way forward and his message to the people of Lagos State and Nigerians
I think we are at a point where all of us as a people, as a state and as a nation need to come together now more than ever before. We at the point in which the national anthem that we all sing to today, the green-white-green flag that we all hold on to everyday need to be put to test. We need to re-engage ourselves and bring ourselves together. We need to heal several deep wounds that we have created for ourselves.
We do not have any other country. This is our country and everybody has as much right as the other person. And so we need to understand that the stronger that we are together the better we will remain as a country.
In Lagos, we are the most resilient and forward looking economy in our country. We cannot put to waste what our fore fathers before us have put in place. We need to preserve them. We need to know that indeed we can build a prospect for the future leaders that are coming behind us. We need to end any form of anger. We need to end any form of protest, we need to end any form of bleeding, confrontation and restart the real healing process.
Because this is what Lagos is. In Lagos, we do not discriminate against the colour of your skin, your religion or ethnicity. We are one, we are together and that is what we should all truly stand for.
And so as your Governor, it is a very tough time but it is a time when leadership must indeed stand up and stand out. So I want to call on everyone to use this opportunity, use this time to engage one another and come together so that indeed we can take our State further, we can heal our wounds, we can have true, real, genuine reconciliation and we can build a Lagos that indeed would be a better Lagos for all of us. I am committed to that. I will not stop until I achieve that. I have your mandate to ensure that I create an enabling environment for all us and for your business to thrive, for security of life and property and I will not relent on that activity.
I can assure you that I will continue to serve you with all of my energy completely and to continue to do the best for the interest of all of us.
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