EndSARS Violence: Govt counts losses
Reggae band Mighty Diamonds’ produced their hit song, Weeping and Wailing and Burning and Gnashing of teeth in the album, Right Time in 1976. It ii as if they had Lagos of October 22, 2020 on their mind.
The zonal head of the Lagos State Transport Management Authority, LASMA in zone 7 headquartered in Ejigbo, Olokodana was still writing his report of the incident for onward despatch to the office of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Transportation when Echonews called on him on Sunday,
His official vehicle was burnt along with 26 others belonging to LASTMA and other agencies sharing the yard in the fateful Tuesday wanton destruction.
“ I left the vehicle in the premises because the situation on the road was tense and made my way home. The next morning,( Tuesday) everything was calm in the morning. Suddenly, the hoodlums came.”
After they left, Olokodana counted his losses: three cars that he personally arrested were burnt. Also razed were the towing vehicles and a new low bed tow truck to keep the roads free of illegal parking and take abandoned vehicles off the streets.
Other agencies which shared in the loss include the Vehicle Inspection Service and the Lagos StateVocational centre. Echonews could not reach the zonal heads at the time of this report,
Many civil servants are still shocked how the premises of Ejigbo Local Council Development Area became the target of the arsonists. Seven vehicles, including buses recently bought and donated to the Nigeria Police but awaiting additional fittings, were burnt. Also the revenue buses were burnt and the windows of the patrol car of the Lagos State Neighbourhood Corps were smashed.
The burnt vehicles might have been saved if the plan of the local government to partner with the state by building a fire service while the state government supplies the truck had worked. There wasn’t enough water to save the vehicles from petrol-induced carnage.
Although the attackers were repelled at the newly- upgraded Divisional Police headquarters of Ejigbo on Ifoshi Street, no one could save the local government’s Multi-purpose Centre which houses the marriage registry, meeting halls and training centres as attackers vandalised and looted the properties.
Ejigbo LCDA chairman Hon. Monsuru Bello Obe said intelligence sources had alerted of a possible attack on the premises two days earlier as hoodlums began to exploit thr EndSARS protest to break into shops and vandalise government buildings.
With the police out of the streets due to the EndSARS, Obe mobilised youths to keep vigil from Sunday. However, with the calm experienced in the city till Wednesday morning, he allowed them to go.
He did not expect that shootings which reportedly took place in faraway Lekki would reverberate in his area. By the time he mobilised the youths to resist the attack, much harm was done.
To worsen the situation, the attackers moved to the police station, threatening to burn it down. It took the intervention of youths belonging to the Oodua Peoples Congress to save the station.
It was indeed a Black WEDNESDAY for the police in Isolo LCDA and Oshodi-Isolo Local Government Area.
The police station at Ilasamaja in Isolo LCDA and both the station and barracks at Makinde in Oshodi- Isolo LGA were vandalised and burnt.
In Ilasamaja, the clash between the police and the attackers led to the death of two policemen and four attackers.
A similar action was planned for Shogunle police station but local youths came to its rescue and chased away the vandals.
Oshodi-Isolo Local Government chairman Hon. Bolaji Muse-Ariyo and the Commissioner for Housing, Hon. Moruf Akinderu visited Makinde station and the barracks.
Both promised to persuade the state government to come to the aid of the victims.
A witness alleged that the police could not repel the attack because the armoury of the station was removed few minutes to the attack.
Meanwhile, the residents of Ilasamaja have provided a temporary facility for the police pending return to normalcy.
