by Bolaji O. Akinyemi
Read more at:https://hobnobnews.com/2023/07/12/lagos-assemblys-call-for-state-police-my-fear-for-non-yoruba-in-lagos/
The dust of tribal storm that rose against the peaceful coexistence of all Lagosians raised during the last general election early in the year was yet to settle down. When Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt Hon. Mudasiru Ajayi Obasa laid to rest the pretense that APC was not behind the incitement of tribal hatred that was eating at the soul of Lagos by stating that the Assembly will review the existing laws of Lagos to discourage non indigenes from owning property in Lagos, on the very day he was unanimously elected by the Assembly that bears no semblance of the Cosmopolitan structure of the state.
This latest demand is for constitutional amendment to accommodate State Police made by the Obasa led Lagos Assembly. Pressing as the need for state policing is to security of lives and property in our unfortunate federal structure that is far from what it should be, the tribal bigotry of leadership at our state level which unfortunately assumed terrible dimensions under APC led Buhari administration seems the expression of majority of the Yoruba people when you hear them saying or singing “awa lokan”, suggestive of its our turn to take our pound of flesh on other tribes like the herdsmen and Fulani in general did under Buhari.
The Lagos State House of Assembly on Tuesday, 11th July 2023 held its first plenary since its inauguration with a call on the National Assembly to commence actions that would lead to the establishment of state police. If the last time the Assembly met, Obasa in his acceptance speech promised a review that will render non indigenes who have homes and houses in Lagos homeless, and the demolition of markets and houses that we have witnessed in Lagos give credence to this, then all nationalists and Patriots should be worried about the latest call.