The Lagos State Government on Saturday demolished the headquarters of the Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme Task force at the old Toll Gate at the Ketu end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Chairman of the State Taskforce on Environmental and Special Offences, Hakeem Adedeji, told newsmen that the demolition was carried out on the orders of the state government.
“The reason for the demolition is to the best knowledge of the governor because he was the one who directed that the buildings should be pulled down in the interest of the public,” he said.
Adedeji said he believed Governor Akinwunmi Ambode must have issued the directive based on the abandonment of the building and its conversion to a hideout by miscreants.
“On getting here, we could not find any Federal Government official inside the building; rather, we found street urchins.
“There is a need to avoid that and that is why we believe that if the building is demolished, no one will use it as a hideout,” he said.
The chairman noted that the structure ought to have been demolished since June 22, but that due process had to be followed before carrying out the demolition.
“All these are geared towards ensuring that the rights of the citizens are not infringed upon,” Adedeji, a Superintendent of Police, said.
Former Governor Babatunde Fashola had written to former President Goodluck Jonathan over the presence of the officials, who claimed to have been set up by the Presidency, to publicly state their functions.
Qed.ng recalls that SURE-P operatives under the aegis of Federal Roads Committee on Surveillance and Action against Roadside Trading and other Forms of Road Abuse (FERSCAR) clashed many times in the recent past with officials of the Lagos State Management Authority (LASTMA) over control of roads in the state.
Tension was particularly high in the days leading to the last general elections with immediate past Minister of State II Foreign Affairs, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro backing the SURE-P agents to drive LASTMA officials off federal roads.
