South-West governors have condemned the exchange of words between the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and a police officer at Magodo Phase II.
Gatekeepers News reports that the governors condemned the exchange of words between the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and a police officer at Magodo Phase II on Tuesday.
The governors, in a statement by their Chairman and Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, particularly took a swipe at the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba and the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN, over the deployment of police in Magodo.
But in a statement on Wednesday evening, the Office of the AGF faulted the allegation of impunity levelled against Malami by the South-West governors.
Many Nigerians expressed shock when policemen led by a chief superintendent of police defied the directive of Sanwo-Olu to vacate Magodo estate.
The policemen had on December 21 accompanied some people who planned to demolish some houses in the estate as part of moves to execute a Supreme Court judgement.
Despite the intervention of Sanwo-Olu on December 21, the policemen refused to leave the estate.
On Tuesday, the matter came to a head when the governor visited the estate and the CSP refused to carry out his directive that policemen should be withdrawn from the area.
On Wednesday, the South-West governors, in the statement by Akeredolu, berated the Attorney General of the Federation and the IGP over what they called “utter disrespect and gross moral turpitude.”
The governors, in the statement titled “Southwest Governors: Police officer’s disrespect to Sanwo-Olu an unacceptable intrusion,” stated that they had received, with disdain, videos of a “disgraceful exchange between a police officer, a CSP, and the Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the supposed chief security officer of the state at the Magodo Residential Estate.”
It said the utter disrespect, which underlined the response of the officer to the governor, established, 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, in very clear terms, the role of the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami SAN, in this act of gross moral turpitude.”
The governors noted the political system in the country treated 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.”
