Southwestern lawyers Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, and Jiti Ogunye have criticized the deployment of armed policemen from Abuja in Magodo Phase II Estate, a highbrow Lagos neighborhood.
Other governors and lawmakers in the region who reacted to the development yesterday, we’re surprised that the action was taken without Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s knowledge.
They reprimanded the Inspector-General of Police, Alkali Usman, and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) Abubakar Malami (SAN) for allegedly being behind the deployment of the policemen.
In 2021, armed security operatives stormed the estate to execute a Supreme Court judgment, which mandated the Lagos State Government to give back 549 plots to the original owners of the area — the Adeyiga Family.
The continuous presence of the armed policemen in the estate prompted the residents to protest.
Sanwo-Olu on Tuesday led members of his cabinet to visit the estate where he openly confronted the security operatives. He told the leader of the team, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), that they had no business being in Lagos State without his knowledge as the Chief Security Officer.
The governor, who consequently asked the CSP to vacate with his men, said the case at hand was between the judgment creditors (the original owners of the land) and the state government.
But the CSP told Sanwo-Olu that “I am here on the instruction of the Inspector-General of Police, through the AGF.”
The governor said AGF Malami told him he was unaware of the operation, and that he had spoken extensively with the IGP on the matter.
Santoku-Olu’s colleagues, under the aegis of the Southwest Governors’ Forum, condemned the alleged role of Malami in the presence of the policemen in the estate.
They said in a statement by their Chairman, Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, that it was ‘disgraceful’ for a security agent to disregard Sanwo-Olu, who visited the area to broker peace.
While activist lawyer Ogunye described the Magodo crisis as a rule of law catastrophe, Adegboruwa pointed out that only restructuring could save the nation.
