Fashola Reacts To Soldiers Seige On Tinubu’s House

The Executive Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola has reacted angrily to reports that unknown soldiers laid siege on the Bourdillon residence of the All Progressive Congress, APC, National leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

The Executive Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola

PMnews reported that the state governor condemned the development on Tuesday while speaking at the APC campaign rally in Ejigbo area of Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.

He also condemned the federal government for removing security from INEC.
“In the last three days, they deployed soldiers to the home of Asiwaju. Every night now, they send a truck load of soldiers to his home. But I have news for them, we will not be intimidated by their actions. Our votes will speak for us. Let me remind them that if Yar’Adua was alive, the owner of this mandate, he will be preparing to leave the office now. When President Goodluck Jonathan was seeking for our votes in 2011, he didn’t deploy soldiers to our homes rather he was begging us. He said that he had no shoes. And after he assumed office, he has since inflicted pains on us. After giving him 1.2 million votes, we have no minister and that shows that he doesn’t care about Lagos. But we need to let him know that Lagos is unique,” Fashola said.

The governor, who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) further stated that the Jonathan-led administration has been lying to Nigerians on what it failed to do, and faulted the Federal Government claims of constructing 25,000 kilometres of road network since it commenced this administration.

“And if one divides the number by the states and the FCT, it means that FG would have succeeded in constructing 690 kilometres in every state. From Lagos to London, it is 5,025 kilometres. But it is alarming that Nigerians cannot see the roads. For instance the Lagos-Ibadan expressway is 104 kilometres, and it is not good. This administration has never budgeted 40 per cent of its budget for capital project,” he said.

Speaking also at the campaign rally, Akinwunmi Ambode, the state governorship APC flag bearer said he would turn the Ejigbo Playing Ground to a stadium, assuring that he is ready to improve on anything that Fashola did not complete during his tenure.

“Wherever he stops, I am going to continue with it. I have said it, I am going to integrate tourism, hospitality, entertainment and sports together to create more jobs for all our youths. We have said it, we are looking for more jobs for all our young ones, we would also create an employment trust fund, which would allow you to have access to free capital so that you can do all the things that you’ve always learnt to do. In addition to that, we would create a small credit guarantee scheme for all our small businesses and all our entrepreneurs. What does that do for all of us? It will allow our mothers, our fathers and our young ones to do whatever it is they decide to do on their own. When they make more profit, they would employ more people and this would take more people off the street. If we take more people off the street, it would improve on the provision of the infrastructure,” Ambode said.
It would be recalled that unknown soldiers were deployed to Tinubu’s Lagos residence to keep surveillance of the house for three consecutive days now, raising fear that the Federal Government is attempting to intimidate the opposition party to submission.

However, the intimidation with military personnel might not be unconnected with the APC chieftain’s (Tinubu) public condemnation of the present administration, especially the current criticism of  postponement of the country’s general elections.