Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai said he was close to tears when he saw the level of destruction that trailed the #EndSARS protests in Lagos State.
The Kaduna governor stated this Thursday when he visited his Lagos counterpart, Babajide Sanwo-Olu to sympathise with him on the wanton loss of lives and destruction of properties in the nation’s commercial nerve centre.
Between October 8 and 23, youths in Lagos joined their counterparts in other states and the FCT to demand an end to police brutality.
However, hoodlums hijacked the protests, looting, damaging private and public properties and committing arson.
El-Rufai hailed Sanwo-Olu for doing his best to ensure the protests remained peaceful.
He berated merchants of violence for taking advantage of the protests to perpetrate violence in the state.
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A statement signed by Sanwo-Olu’s Chief Press Secretary, Gboyega Akosile quoted el-Rufai as saying, “I have spent time to see some of the pictures of the destruction done on public properties in Lagos and I nearly shed tears. Anyone who cares about development and progress will cry after seeing what has been done to public facilities and people’s investment that provided jobs to youths.
“While expressing anger on police brutality may be right, but destroying public properties, which will have to be rebuilt using money that is needed to invest in other public infrastructure, under the guise of protest is nothing but self-destruction.
“The Government of Lagos and the Federal Government will have to re-invest scarce resources that could have been used for other things to rebuild the vandalised facilities.”
According to the statement, el-Rufai further sympathised with the Nigeria Police Force and families that lost loved ones in the fracas.
He charged the Federal Government not to allow a repeat of the mayhem leading to such wanton loss of lives and destruction of properties.
Reacting, the Lagos governor appreciated his Kaduna counterpart for the visit.
Noting that Lagos had moved on from the incident, Sanwo-Olu “vowed to make the state uncomfortable for those with the intention to destroy the state’s economy and heritage.”
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