NOVEMBER 5, 2020
- El-Rufai’s visit is coming days after the Inspector-General of Police visited the state to assess the level of damage done to public and private assets across the state.
Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has said that the youths who were involved in the destruction of public properties in Lagos State during the violence that erupted in the wake of the #EndSars demonstrations are on the path to self-destruction.
He stated this during a commiseration visit to his Lagos State counterpart, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, over the recent loss of lives and destruction of private and public properties in Nigeria’s economic capital.
Hoodlums had hijacked the #EndSARS protests against police brutality to wreak havoc in the state last month.
El-Rufai said Sanwo-Olu did all that needed to be done to prevent the demonstrations from degenerating to violence but those who thrive in violence infiltrated the protests to achieve their agenda.
According to a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Lagos governor, Gboyega Akosile, the Kaduna State governor said he nearly shed tears seeing photos of burnt and looted sites in the state.
It 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.
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“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.”
The Kaduna State governor also sympathised with the police and those who lost loved ones in Lagos in the wake of the violence, saying the Federal Government must not allow wanton destruction of public assets to happen again.
On his part, Sanwo-Olu thanked his colleague, saying the state had moved on but “vowed to make the state uncomfortable for those with the intention to destroy the state’s economy and heritage.”