Fashola’s claim on Lekki robbery ‘unintelligent’

The presidency has reacted angrily to comments by Babatunde Fashola, governor of Lagos state, blaming President Goodluck Jonathan for the robbery incident at Lekki which claimed four lives.

Reuben Abati, presidential spokesman, described Fashola’s statement as “irresponsible” and “unintelligent”.

Fashola had alleged that Jonathan’s visit to Lagos on Thursday led to the massive deployment of police officers to protect the president, thereby leaving the other parts of the state under-policed.

Addressing state house correspondents on Friday, Abati, said it was regrettable that Fashola would choose to play politics with a serious incident that led to the loss of lives.

He said: “The comment credited to Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State to the effect that the robbery incident that occurred yesterday in Lekki‎, Lagos state, was due to the presence of President Jonathan in Lagos. And the governor allegedly said that all the policemen who should have been responsible for security in the state had been deployed to serve President Jonathan.

“You will all recall that yesterday President Jonathan sounded the gong closing the business of the day at the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

“We consider the statement attributed to governor Fashola as ‎grossly and utterly irresponsible. We expect that a man of his status who is governor of a state should speak more responsibly. It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever that the entire police formation in Lagos state would be deployed to protect the President of Nigeria.

“The visit of the president to Lagos or any part of the country does not necessitate the depletion of the police force active in that particular state of environment.

“President has a defied  team that protects him anywhere he goes. And again President Jonathan does not  need the entire police force in Lagos State to protect him, in a state where he is loved by the people and where as we have seen he enjoys overwhelming support in the lead up to the 2015 presidential elections.

“We not only consider Governor Babatunde Fashola’s statement as irresponsible, we also think that it is unintelligent because it flies in the face of facts and it just does not add up.

“And we hope that Governor Fashola in an attempt to play politics will not continue as his party does to play politics with the lives of people. People died in that unfortunate incident and President Jonathan commiserates with the affected families. But we will find it really cheap and disgusting that the governor of a state will now see that, an occasion of bereavement affecting the number of families as an opportunity to play very cheap and irresponsible politics.”