By Adesina Soyooye
A Chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Bode George, says that Lagos State is gutted from within and without.
George, who identifies himself as an “original Lagosian”, was reacting to the carnage in Lagos State which followed the #EndSARS protest in the state. He said the reaction of the youths in Lagos, in particular, was a result of the rot and injustice in the State, witnessed and noted by the youths year after year.
During the protest which recorded fatalities, including policemen, and the razing and looting of both public and private businesses, Lagos lost trillions of Naira.
In an advertised statement titled, Lagos State: The Anger And The Rage
George said: “For 21 years the state has perfected the crude system of cronyism, nepostistic fixation, and cultish largeness. The godfather is the epochal overlord who rules over this system of greed and prebendal license where Government is reduced to a mercenary spoil system distributed among relatives, cronies, the favourites of power, and various loafers around the corridors of a mangled state.
“The system is contemptuous of merit or intelligence. The system is distrustful of accountability and the dictates of probity. It is all about blind acquisition of wealth and a grovelling worship at the alter of a tin-god.”
Chief George asked for the dismantling of two Toll Gates in Lagos, especially the Lekki Toll Gate where protesting youths were, allegedly, shot at, and dispersed by gun-toting soldiers.
He said: “Let me advise that the two Toll Gates at Lekki be dismantled. The Toll Gates are now sacred grounds where innocent lives were cut-short abruptly. At the Admiralty Circle Toll Gate specifically where bullets rained on that black Tuesday on that black 20-10-2020, a monument should be erected as a permanent memorial to honour the young men and women who stood up in peaceful protests against the ills in the society.”
On the evening of Tuesday, October 20, soldiers stormed the Lekki Toll Gate where #EndSARS youth protesters had camped out for days. They stormed the place after the Lagos State Government imposed a 24-hour curfew in the State.
But there is a controversy over what happened that evening.
While the youths say many of them were shot dead by the soldiers, the Lagos State Government insist two people died in the hospital where they were taken to. There were a number of the injured too.
But the most contentious issue was on who asked for the deployment of the soldiers.
Initially, the Lagos State Governor had denied knowledge of the deployment, insisting that forces beyond him did.
But a couple of days later, the Army, in a press statement, said the it was Governor Sanwo-Olu who asked for the deployment of the army to the state to help restore law and order.
The Army, also, said they neither fired live bullets at the protesters, nor killed anybody.
The disclosure by the Army that it was the Governor who asked for their deployment has put the Governor on a spot.
Only the President has the powers to approve the deployment of soldiers to anywhere. In the instant case, opinion is that the Governor must have cleared with the President before the deployment of the soldiers.
It is not known if George was genuinely, asking for the dismantling of the Toll Gates because of the youths, or because of his political differences with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
It has strongly been alleged that the Lekki Toll Gate where the shooting took place belong to Tinubu. But Tinubu vehemently denies any interest in the now contentious Toll Gate.
