President hints at state of emergency in Lagos

President Olusegun Obasanjo intimated on Thursday that he might impose a state of emergency in Lagos if State Governor Bola Tinubu failed to stop the deterioration of security there. The warning came in a letter to which Tinubu responded by blaming the federal government for the insecurity. The letters, published in foreign and local media on Friday, came in the wake of increasing tension between the police and the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), a militant ethnic organisation accused of various acts of violence in Lagos, including killing a police officer. The police have declared OPC leader Ganiyu Adams wanted for arson, murder and other crimes. Obasanjo said in his letter: “When either by utterance, action or indeed inaction, a Chief Executive shows a loss of control in the maintenance of law and order in his state, it becomes incumbent on the Federal Government to take appropriate action to arrest the situation, usually in the form of the imposition of a State of Emergency. “Mr. Governor, I regret that I have not seen any action on your part in the recent past to suggest that you are in control of the security situation in Lagos State. On the contrary there is evidence of increasing disorder, loss of lives and property and a general sense of fear among the citizens of Lagos State. This is an intolerable situation.” However, the Lagos governor blamed the insecurity on “the helplessness of the relevant security agencies, particularly the police” who are “undermanned, ill-equipped, poorly motivated and demoralised”. He noted that the police fell under the federal government which “should either more ably bear the constitutional burden of maintaining security in the country or allow for the necessary constitutional amendment to allow the states to bear their own cross”.