Makoko Demolition In Overall Public Interest, Says Gov. Sanwo-Olu

Governor of Lagos State Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Friday said the recent demonstrations by some protesters against demolition in parts of Makoko were unnecessary, insisting that the action of the government was in public interest.

The governor stated this during a private breakfast meeting with  managing directors and chief executive officers of various companies, organised by the Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF) in the Ikoyi, Lagos to raise funds for critical security needs for 2026.

He said: “I have been accused of destroying Makoko. You will notice shanties sprawling by the Third Mainland Bridge. But the challenge is that it was now moving at an incredible speed, and it was also getting close to the bridge. And there are high-tension power lines right underneath there. I am not going to sit down, and something will drop off, and in one day, over 100 to 500 people will die.

“So what we have done is that we just pushed them back. For six years, a United Nations agency came forward to boast and said that if I brought money, they would put money for development. I have told them this is my own money. They have not come back till date. It was last week; they said that they didn’t have money.

“People will come and tell you stories. Of what benefit would it be for the government to dislocate the people. It can only be for their own safety. We will not sit back and just let things happen, and people now come and blame us and say that we are not even there.

“We have our responsibility. We know what we are meant to do. Sometimes you see some NGOs who are collecting thousands of dollars from donor countries, going around to make videos of two or three children, saying, ‘You miss school today, you miss school tomorrow, and the rest of it, just for their pecuniary rewards.’ It is a shame.

“I want people to be rest assured that we are not about taking anything away from anybody; we are just trying to make life better for our people.”

Sanwo-Olu also disclosed his administration’s plan to commission 35 schools with about 22,000 students in the Tolu community, Ajegunle area of Lagos State. He also spoke on how his administration resolved the Okobaba sawmill problem.

He said: “Okobaba was one place that always had fire every month, every year. We were able to do it. It took us over 10 to 15 years, but we relocated them to a place called Agbowa. It cost us billions. We gave them over 500 houses that we built for them. And that is why you don’t have them there again.

“I am going to commission 35 junior and senior schools with over 22,000 students in Tolu, Ajegunle. We are going to commission it next month. We are dealing with a lot of things. And in all of that, we still need to keep our people safe.

“We still need to create an environment and ambience where investment will continue to come in. We need to have a space where the future will be secured. Several new investors are planning to come in; we need to be able to assure them that Lagos is the right place and environment.”

Dwelling on security matters, he pointed out that some of the security needs are multipurpose security helicopters and drones, APCs and Water cannons, tactical training and infrastructural upgrade for the Police, digital communication equipment and Smart CCTV Cameras, vehicles and an ultra- modern mechanical workshop, among others.

Sanwo-Olu said past interventions were well utilised by the Lagos State Security Trust Fund to empower security agencies for a safe and secure environment, noting that the model has been adopted by other subnational and federal governments, while some are trying to copy and live with it.

He said: “On a year-on-year basis, the Lagos State Government has never taken a back seat on her responsibility. We still fund well over 50 per cent of whatever it is that happens year-on-year. But we wanted it to be something that the private sector can trust, and they can see that their support at all times is always judiciously used. There is accountability, and the funds are transparently deployed at all times.

“We are rebuilding the Command and Control Center with state-of-the-art equipment that will be put in there. We are installing CCTV cameras. We started with a safe city model. We thought we were going to be able to do between 5,000 to 10,000 cameras for Lagos alone. We have not gone far on that and we want to scale it up.

“We want to ensure that Lagos continues to remain secure. We want to improve the rescue ability, capacity, and capability of our first responders.”