The Lagos State Government is to set up a panel of inquiry into the Lekki Toll Plaza incident that resulted to large-scale destruction of property and killing of many protesters.
On Oct. 20, #EndSARS protesters were reportedly attacked by armed security officials at the Lekki toll gate, stoking massive destruction of property in parts of Lagos, Nigeria’s economic hub.
Speaking in a television interview in Lagos on Thursday, Gov. Babajide Sanyo-Olu, said the investigation would enable the state “to unravel the whole gamut of the incident’’.
He denied the involvement of the State Government in the incident, stressing that he could not have ordered armed men into the incident as he was not within its command chain.
The governor said that he had not been able to get across to President Muhammadu Buhari since the incident, disclosing that two telephone attempts he made on Wednesday did not get across to the president.
He said that the State Government could not respond appropriately to the mayhem across Lagos on Wednesday because five fire service stations were destroyed, their vehicles burnt and firemen attacked.
Sanwo-Olu said that the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency’s building in Lekki had also been destroyed by hoodlums.
He said that he could not fathom the agenda of the hoodlums in destroying public buildings, public transport buses, banks, court buildings and the palace of the Oba of Lagos.
The governor said that having state police would have helped in dealing with the mayhem as state police was about community policing, identifying troublesome individuals and black spots within a community.
He said that agitation for the setting up of state police predated his inauguration as governor but that he would continue to agitate for the establishment of one.
Sanwo-Olu said that the 10,000 operatives of the state’s Neighbourhood Watch could not deal with such breakdown as they were limited to information gathering.
He said that the state had not started counting its losses but was working hard to put the incident behind.
The governor said he had started consultations with the 1,500 community development associations in the state and engaging traditional rulers as well as opinion leaders across the state to bring the crisis to an end. (NAN)
