President of Women Arise and Centre for Change, Dr Joe Okei Odumakin has said the incident at Magodo housing estate where the governor of Lagos State stood helpless before a middle-rank police officer is a disgrace to democracy.
Gatekeepers News reports that a Police officer on Tuesday openly defied Sanwo-Olu’s order to vacate Magodo Phase 2 Estate when he led members of his cabinet to visit the residents protesting the continuous presence of armed policemen in the estate.
The Police had told Sanwo-Olu that he and his colleagues were at the estate on the orders of the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba; and the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN).
“Can you call your superiors in Abuja and tell them that the governor is here and as the Chief Security Officer, you don’t have any business being in my state right now and that I want you to disengage right now? Sanwo-Olu had to the Police who responded that “I am here on the instruction of the Inspector General of Police through the AGF. I am too small or too low to call them. Your Excellency sir, you can call them sir.”
Reacting, Okei Odumakin said the incident was a “clear testimony to the fact that we still do not run a Federal system but a unitary system inherited from the military.
“The anger of the public against a police officer talking disrespectfully to Lagos governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, may be justified, but the officer in question was just a man under authority, acting on the ubiquitous “order from above”…
“Between Sanwo-Olu and his “Oga at the top”, it should be obvious who the police officer would obey.
“This also clearly shows that our police force is not professional, as is the case in settled democracies.
“The onus now is on our political leaders to ensure that we move away from military unitarism to true Federalism.
“To arrest this kind of embarrassment, we must restructure the country.
“State governors not convinced about the necessity for restructuring should now begin to give the idea a second thought.
“A restructured Nigeria will come with state police and the dismantling of the present system where State governors are the chief security officers of their states in words and not in deeds.
“This debacle between a Governor and CSP is shameful. This must not be allowed to reoccur.
“Be it the IGP or the AGF or both, anyone responsible for the show of shame exhibited at Magodo by the Federal authorities must be brought to book.
“Coming so soon after the embarrassing invasion of the residence of a Supreme Court Justice, Justice Mary Odili, by unauthorized persons pretending to be law officers, government must act fast to nip such dangerous power drunkenness and clearly illegal activities in the bud if the country is not to quickly descend into a state of anarchy.”
