Lekki Robbery: Fashola Says Reuben Abati Is Unintelligent, Jonathan isn't Mindful Too
comments where he blamed the success of the
Lekki Robbery incident on March 12th on the visit
of President Jonathan in Lagos on that day. Below
is a statement he released explaining what he
meant. He also called out presidential media aide,
Reuben Abati who had earlier described Governor
Fashola's reasoning as totally irresponsible.
"From the statement credited to the Special Adviser
to the President on Media and Publicity. Dr.
Reuben Abatti over the comments of His
Excellency, Governor of Lagos State, Mr.
Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, on the deployment of
police during the visit of the president, it is obvious
he is ignorant of the traffic and security menace,
his principal constitutes whenever he visits any
part of the country. It should also interest the
'Vuvuzuela' of President Jonathan that during these
visits, which most of the times are for campaign
hustles, the entire Police and other security
network are put on high alert to pay attention to
the presidential visits leaving the citizens
vulnerable to the reckless gallivanting of the visitor.
Abati must be sleeping or indulging in his usual
pastimes not to understand 'route lining' where
every available policeman on duty is deployed to
man routes where the President would pass
through. It is not the statement of the Governor
that is unintelligent, the unintelligent thing here is
the inability of the President to weigh public
interest above personal ambition.
The unintelligent thing here is not to know the
importance of the Police as an institution that
deserves adequate funding to carry out its function
of protecting life and property. The unintelligent
thing is the Federal Government dodging its
constitutional responsibility of which the Police is
one of them. Governor Fashola is a very
responsible Governor who put the people first
ahead of himself, and this he has demonstrated
over the years. He made reference to the dead
policemen because he feels responsible to them.
At the event, he prayed for the repose of their
souls and enjoined the audience to stand with him
in a one minute-silence over the fallen heroes
whom he concluded died in the cause of serving
their country.
Abati could not comprehend why Governor Fashola
would be shocked at the death of three policemen;
we have not had such an experience in the past
two years here in Lagos where policemen are killed
by armed robbers. This is a different situation
where it took the death of almost 20,000 citizens
before someone started to take action. When the
ocean surge was going to wipe out a whole
community within the Lekki area, Fashola was
there.
When the Dana aircraft crashed in Iju, Fashola was
not only there, his arrival at the scene was prompt,
and for the first time in the history of Nigeria, we
saw a systematic and methodological approach to
emergency management. Mass DNA was
conducted to identify the charred bodies of the
victims. Trauma and psychological centres were
established to attend to the families of the victims.
As recent as few days ago, Fashola was at Papa
Ashafa and Agege communities where rainstorm
wreaked havoc.
When Abati's principal was holed up in Aso Rock
Villa with his tails between his legs during the
outbreak of the Ebola Virus in Nigeria, Fashola's
face was the succour and hope Nigerians saw. He
was the only person the victims and survivors saw.
So, this vuvuzuela should be courteous in his
choice of words. We are, however, not surprised.
Abatti is a serial reckless talker that likes listening
to himself, and only thinks after talking. Latter
converts like him acts up to become more Catholic
than the Pope because of the fear to the past after
the allure of office. His recent unguarded
statement about General Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd)
is still very fresh.
If the retired General had not been a statesman,
only God knows where Abati would be by now. It's
time someone close to this garrulous man tells him
to start measuring his utterances.
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