The policeman told the governor that he and his colleagues were at the estate on the orders of the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba; as well as the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN).
Governors of South-West states have described the defying of an order by Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, by a Chief Superintendent of Police to vacate Magodo Phase 2 Estate area of the state on Tuesday as an unacceptable intrusion.
The policeman told the governor that he and his colleagues were at the estate on the orders of the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba; as well as the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN).
Sanwo-Olu had led members of his cabinet to visit the residents protesting the continued presence of armed policemen in the estate.
For days, policemen besieged the estate in company with suspected land grabbers and members of a family, who had planned to demolish property in the choice estate to execute a Supreme Court judgment.
The development caused commotion at the estate as landlords and tenants worried over their fate.
Chairman of the South-West Governors Forum and Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, in a statement in Akure personally signed by him described the development as unacceptable to the governors.
He also condemned in clear terms, the role of the Attorney-General of the Federation in “this act of gross moral turpitude”.
The Ondo governor called on President Muhammadu Buhari to curb the excesses of certain elements bent on acting in a manner capable of eroding the bond of trust existing between the people and the Federal Government.
The statement reads, “We are in possession of a video which has gone viral on the social media concerning the 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.
“The content of the video is very disconcerting, and this is being charitable. The utter disrespect, which underlines the response of the officer to the governor establishes, 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, very strongly, this brazen assault on decency. We call on the IG to explain the justification for this intrusion. This is not acceptable. Any expectations of rapprochement between so called federating units and federal security agencies are becoming forlorn, progressively, due to deliberate acts which mock our very avowal to ethics and professionalism.
“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. We, on our part, will continue to interrogate the current system, which treats elected representatives of the people as mere prefects, while appointed office holders ride rough shod 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.
“We condemn very strongly, this brazen assault on decency. We call on the IG to explain the justification for this intrusion. This is not acceptable. Any expectations of rapprochement between so called federating units and federal security agencies are becoming forlorn, progressively, due to deliberate acts which mock our very avowal to ethics and professionalism.
“We stand by our brother, the governor of Lagos State. We advise him to deploy the regional security outfit in the state to protect the lives and property of the people. We call on the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces to rein in the excesses of certain elements bent on acting in a manner capable of eroding the bond of trust existing between the people and the Federal Government. It is preposterous for political appointees to seek to undermine the very structure of service upon which their appointments rest.”