Magodo Crisis: Lagos State Govt Meets Stakeholders, Arrives at Six Resolutions

•Calls for restraint on part of the police

•Malami, S’West governors fight over police’s disrespect to Sanwo-Olu

•Afenifere flays situation, calls for state police

Chiemelie Ezeobi, Alex Enumah in Abuja and Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan

Yesterday’s intervention by the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-olu, in the face-off between the Magodo/Shangisha landlords and land owners, has yielded results as the meeting called at the instance of the governor birthed six resolutions a compensation with lands elsewhere.

The state had met with the warring parties yesterday to deliberate on the Supreme Court judgement with a view to finding lasting solutions.

Meanwhile, the Attorney Generation of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, and the South-west governors have traded tackles over the minister’s alleged role in the matter, with the former warning politicians to desist from dragging his name in the mud.

However, at the meeting chaired by Sanwo-Olu at the State House, Alausa, were the Judgment Creditors (Shangisha Landlords’ Association), their lawyers, Commissioner of Police Lagos State Command, Policemen from the F.C.T Command and Police Headquarters.

Also present were the Executive and Trustees of the Magodo Residents’ Association and senior government officials.

According to the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, the thrust of the meeting was the enforcement of Judgment of the Supreme Court delivered on the 10th of February 2012 in suit no. SC/112/2002.

At the end of the meeting, he said the following resolutions were arrived at: “That the Committee set up by the State Government to resolve the Magodo dispute, chaired by the Hon. Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, is to meet with the Judgment Creditors (Shangisha Landlords’ Association) on Friday 7th of January 2022;

“The Surveyor-General of Lagos State, Permanent Secretary Lands Bureau and Hon. Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, are to immediately identify available plots of land within the Shangisha village scheme.

“The Committee is also to identify how the available plots of land are to be accessed and whether any infrastructural development is necessary to access the land. Upon identification of available and accessible land, the State Government is to immediately allocate the land to the 549 Judgment Creditors.

“In the event that there is no available and accessible land within the Shangisha village scheme to allocate to all the 549 Judgment Creditors, the State Government, in agreement with the Judgment Creditors, will provide alternative plots of land.

“Whilst this exercise is ongoing, the Nigeria Police are to restrain themselves from any conduct or action that may instigate violence or breakdown of law and order in Magodo. They should be keepers of peace and act within the confines of the law – always. All the parties have agreed to an amicable resolution of the matter.

“The meeting ended with Mr. Governor thanking all for attending and restating his resolve to ensure that peace returns to Magodo and that there is justice for all,” he added.

At the end, Omotoso said the attendees praised the governor for showing “good leadership”, which they said prevented violence in the estates, adding that they expressed confidence in the governor’s ability and sincerity to resolve the matter.

Malami, while reacting to a statement by Southwest governors accusing him of complicity in the Magodo crisis, said in a statement by his media aide, Dr Umar Gwandu, that the issue at hand had nothing to do with the Executive arm of government, where he belongs but, rather obedience to the rule of law, which the governors have a duty to defend.

“The Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice takes exception to the Southwest Governors unjustifiable insinuation of impunity against the office of the Attorney General over execution of a judgment of the Supreme Court.

“The role of the executive is, in this respect, simply to aide the maintenance of law and order in due compliance with rule of law arising from giving effect to the judgment of the apex court of the land.

“Let it be known that the issue is regarding a Supreme Court Judgement that was delivered in 2012 long before the coming of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in office at a time, when Malami was not a Minister.

“The judgment was a reaffirmation of the judgments of Court of Appeal and High Court delivered on 31st December, 1993”, the statement read in part.

In expressing surprise over the position of the governors, Malami described it as a vituperation of ulterior motives of some political class, who derived pleasure in dragging the name of Malami in the mud to achieve some sinister objectives.

“It is widely reported in the papers that the Lagos State Governor was quoted to have said I’ve spoken extensively with the Inspector-General of Police and the Honourable Attorney-General, and we’ve resolved all the issues.

“The Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, would appreciate if the coalition of the governors will help to unravel the circumstances preventing the Lagos State Government from enforcing the court order despite several attempts from 2012- 2015 and so-called settlement initiative started in 2016.

“Some of the cardinal pillars of democratic government are the doctrine of separation of powers and obedience to the rule of law inclusive of court orders.

“It is a common knowledge that execution of the judgment and orders of courts of competent jurisdiction, and the court of last resort in the circumstances remains a cardinal component of the rule of law and the office of the Attorney General wonders how maintenance of the law and orders in the course of execution of the judgment of the supreme can be adjudged by imagination of the governors to be unruly.

“We want to restate that sanctity of the rule of law is not a matter of choice,” the statement added.

Earlier, the South-west governors, in a statement by its chairman and Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, had said, “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 roughshod 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,” the statement stated.

Also concerned by the ugly development, Afenifere, a pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, has condemned what it termed the desecration of federal spirit with which the country is supposed to be governed as demonstrated by the exchanges between Sanwo-Olu and officers of the Nigerian police.

The organisation, in a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, said the confession by the CSP, who led the police team to the Magodo Estate that he had to disobey the governor as he took orders from appointed officials in Abuja, exposed the lie that Nigeria was practising a federal system of government.

He maintained that while the country was officially called Federal Republic of Nigeria and the state governors dub as the Chief Security Officers of their states, when Sanwo-Olu wanted to take a step he considered necessary for the issue at hand, an obstacle was put on his way.

Ajayi added that, that this came through two officers of the federal government that were appointed – the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) – made the situation to be irritating

Afenifere then demanded for unreserved apologies from the IGP and the AGF for the despicable affront and immediate take-off of state police by any state that is ready to establish such, insisting that Nigeria should no longer be run as a country under a unitary system of government.

The group warned that the tendency to resort to self-help in enforcing court judgements was condemnable, asking: “Were the police being fair in following one party to go and enforce what was considered to be an order of the court?”

Afenifere insisted that court orders were supposed to be respected summarily, noting that where a party failed to do this, there were established legal processes to handle such a situation.

While imploring everyone to toe the path of legality, fairness and justice and not to resort to self-help to enforce even their rights as doing so may be detrimental to overall common interest, it called for the disbandment and repudiation of all practices that were impeding the practice and application of true federalism in Nigeria.