24022021 - Banditry designed to 9 destroy Nigeria — GOVS

10 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2021
:Vanguard
News
#EndSARS: Lagos panel
summons IGP
By Gabriel Olawale,
with agency reports
LAGOS—LAGOS State
Judicial Panel of
Restitution and Inquiry, set
up to investigate cases of
police brutality, especially
involving officers of the
now-defunct Special Anti-
Robbery Squad, yesterday,
summoned the Inspector-
General of Police,
Mohammad Adamu.
The IGP was summoned
over a case involving one
Adewale Adewuyi, a
petitioner, whose 26 acres
of farmland were allegedly
seized by police since 2013.
This came on a day a
rights activist and a lawyer,
Dele Farotimi, alleged
threat to his life over his
position on the reopening
of Lekki toll gate.
Lagos panel
summons IGP
Debo Adeleke, the
petitioner’s lawyer, alleged
that the police invaded the
farmland located at Age-
Mowo near Badagry on
December 17, 2013, and
destroyed it.
The development, the
counsel said, affected the
health status of his client.
Adeleke, who asked the
panel to summon the IGP,
said his client – brought on
a stretcher – could not feed
himself after the incident.
The lawyer also said a
Federal High Court had in
2017 ordered the police to
release the farmland and
pay damages for physical
assault.
The petitioner’s lawyer
said: “That order is needed,
although I’m not supposed
to say this is a fact-finding
panel, we need to summon
the IGP, so that he can tell
the commissioner of police
to release this land to us.
They are not using the
land, it is just there.
“Everybody fears the
Lagos state judicial panel
on restitution. We will be
grateful if my lord will issue
the order.”
On his part, police
counsel, Cyril Ejiofor,
requested two weeks to get
the issue resolved.
But Chairperson of the
panel, Doris Okuwobi,
ordered that the parties
mentioned in the petition
should be served the
summons and adjourned
till March 30.
Farotimi, activist,
alleges threat to
life
Meanwhile, Mr.
Farotimi, who is a member
of the Radical Agenda
Movement in the Nigerian
Bar Association, NBA, said
that he has already filed a
petition to the DSS and
Nigeria Police over alleged
plans to assassinate him by
some people, who are not
comfortable with his
position.
Farotimi, who addressed
newsmen in Lagos, said: “I
am already aware that I was
...as Farotimi
alleges threat to
life
offending a lot of powerful
people due to my position
as regards the EndSars
protest, the killings at the
Lekki toll gate and the
planned reopening of the
toll gate.
“But on Tuesday last
week, I was threatened by
some state actors that my
life is not safe so long as I
am in Lagos. I was told to
watch my back because I
can be killed at any time if
I don’t back down.
“Somebody, who is also
privileged to certain
conversations at a certain
level which I won’t want to
disclose, now revealed the
calculated plan to
assassinate me. I won’t
reveal the name of my
sources and I know it is not
one of those empty threats
because the threat was
specific, names were
mentioned and I know one
of those mentioned at a
personal level because he
is someone I have known
for years.
“I have written a petition
to security agencies and
also requested protection
from the Nigeria state. I am
not a drug baron, I don’t
cheat people, if anything is
to happen to me look no
further than the person I
mentioned in my petition.
The identity I have already
made clear to my associates
and family.”
Farotimi, however, made
it clear that his position on
the EndSars protests was
not for personal gains, but
an obligation he owed
future generations.
He said: “I am speaking
for the voiceless, my
activism did not start today,
the threat to my life did not
start today, but this
particular one is coming as
a function of my role in
questioning the rationale
behind the rush to reopen
the toll gate."
:@vanguardnews :@vanguardnews NEWS HOTLINES: 08052867023, 08052867058
INSECURITY: We’ll fight criminality
with every legal means —S-West govs
....Say Amotekun not against any ethnic group or business
....Moves against open grazing
By Dayo Johnson
Aof KURE—CHAIRMAN
the South-West
Governors’ Forum,
Governor Rotimi
Akeredolu, yesterday,
declared that governors in
the region would fight
criminality with every legal
means. He also dismissed
insinuations by some
Northern governors and
leaders that Amotekun was
established to attack ethnic
nationalities or businesses.
Akeredolu, who said this
during his second term
inauguration lecture, held
in Akure, stated: “What we
have set out to do in the
South Western states is not
targeted at any ethnic
nationality or business.
Nigeria operating fatherism, not federalism —Adesina, AfDB boss
By Dayo Johnson
Aof
KURE—PRESIDENT
African
Development Bank, AfDB,
Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina,
yesterday, lamented that
Nigeria is not practicing
true federalism, but
fatherism.
Adesina, who was the
guest lecturer at the second
inaugural lecture of
Governor Rotimi
Akeredolu, in Akure, said
Nigeria’s system is
essentially a revenuesharing
system.
Speaking on the theme:
'Towards a New Nigeria:
From Federal Fatherism to
a Commonwealth’, the
AfDB boss said: “With
stupendous resources, all
concentrating at the centre,
states are ever dependent
on the centre. With the
magnetic field of Federal
Revenue Allocations, states
are constantly pulled,
powerless, into perennial
LECTURE—From left: Ondo State All Progressive Congress Chairman, Ade Adetimehin; wife of the
state governor, Betty Akeredolu; Governor Rotimi Akeredolu; former Osun State deputy governor,
Senator lyiola Omisore; Deputy Governor-elect, Lucky Ayedatiwa and wife, during Governor
Akeredolu's Second Term Inaugural Lecture, in Ondo.
“But we are against
criminality and we shall
fight criminality with every
legal means.
“It is in the interest of our
collective wellbeing. All we
require is the support and
understanding of all
federating units, including
the Federal Government.
“The simple truth is that
we have lived in self-denial
amid an excruciating pain
that is almost cancerous
now.
“Notwithstanding our
challenges today, my firm
belief in the Nigerian
Project is strengthened by
my fact of a true Nigerian.
“That I desire a more
united Nigeria with every
ingredient of freedom, rule
of law, patriotism, love,
mutual respect and
harmony is an
understatement.
“I am prepared to fight for
it legitimately for the benefit
of all. Today, the most
potent threat to national
belief is insecurity.
“And because we have
allowed a sustained, nonbeneficial
stagnation for too
long in our approach, the
consequences are
increasingly becoming
more dire.
“The time to act is now,
not tomorrow. As leaders,
the choices we make create
the path to our desires. “We
cannot pretend that all is
well when indeed, more
things are going wrong.
“Today, rather than our
nation, Nigerians are more
• Twisted federalism responsible for sectional activism, says Akeredolu
dependency.”
His words: “This financial
pilgrimage creates a sense
of helplessness and overt
dependency on the centre.
“State governors now
spend more time in Abuja
than they do in their states,
seeking the monthly
federal manna.
“Like a pendulum, ever
moving from side to side in
constant motion, so too has
this unfortunate
dependency become
seemingly unstoppable.
“The truth, however, is
that to survive and strive,
states must become
financially independent of
the centre in Abuja.
“This is federalism of
fiscal dependency. It’s
federalism that’s fiscally
unhealthy for the states and
the federal government.
Because Nigeria depends
on oil for over 70 per cent
of government revenue,
any decline in the price of
oil creates fiscal and
economic volatilities that
reverberate across the
states.
“What’s needed is
greater economic and fiscal
autonomy for the states.
The issue is less about
states or regional autonomy,
but the financial and
economic viability of
Nigeria’s constituent states.
“If Nigeria were to be a
conglomerate firm, it would
not be economically viable
because 92 per cent of its
constituent subsidiary
companies are not viable
without the support of the
holding company.
“Nigeria’s federalism
doesn’t grow its constituent
entities. It simply makes
them perpetual dependent.
“The Nigeria system is,
therefore, not federalism,
but fatherism. The
agitations for
decentralization can be
understood when viewed
in the light of a craving for
greater autonomy.
“But let us face it, political
autonomy is meaningless
unless it’s backed by greater
fiscal self-reliance at the
state level
“We tend to copy a system
that is not well suited to our
context. The United States
that we copied from does
not control resources at the
state level. Instead, the
states generate the bulk of
their income from taxes.”
Speaking on the
restructuring of the country,
Adesina said it should not
be driven by political
dependency but by
economic and financial
viability.
He said: “As a way out of
the economic quagmire,
much has been said about
the need for restructuring.
Restructuring should not be
driven by political
expediency, but by
economic and financial
viability for political viability.
“The achievements of
economically viable entities
inclined to ethnic
nationalism.
“We have resorted to
clannish satisfaction in
place of nation-building.
We are gradually and
unconsciously replacing
national patriotism with
sectional activism.
“No one, I repeat, no one
should be blamed. Our
very faulty and twisted
federalism is responsible.
“Regrettably, even those
with palpable national
passion and patriotism are
today, gradually tilting to
the unintended ethnic
nationality cabin.
“Most Nigerians are
losing faith in our “Unity in
Diversity” sloganeering, but
there is an opportunity to restore
national consciousness through
true federalism. It hurts none, it
pays all."
and the viability of the
national entity, require
constitutional changes to
devolve more economic and fiscal
powers to the states or regions.
“Our union would be equitable.
Our union would be fully
participatory. We must be
audacious.”
Twisted
federalism
responsible for
sectional
activism, says
Akeredolu
In his opening remarks,
Governor Rotimi Akeredolu
blamed the growing sectional
activism, which he said is
gradually replacing national
patriotism on the faulty and
twisted federalism as operated in
the country.
He lamented that most
Nigerians are losing faith in unity
in diversity sloganeering while
urging that the only opportunity
to restore national consciousness
is through True Federalism.