Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, on Thursday described as ‘pure evil’ the destruction of Lagos facilities by hoodlums who hijacked the #EndSARS protest.
He said Lagos, which accounts for one-third of the national Gross Domestic Product, did not deserve to suffer such pain.
el-Rufai spoke during a visit to the Lagos House, Marina.
The governor said the young people who carried out the violence intentionally engaged in an act of ‘self-destruction’, stressing that the repercussion of the action would be felt by them.
He said, “I have spent time to see some of the pictures of the destruction done on public property in Lagos and I nearly shed tears. Anyone who cares about development and progress will cry after seeing what has been done to public facilities and people’s investment that provided jobs to youths.
“While expressing anger on police brutality may be right, destroying public properties, which will have to be rebuilt using money that is needed to invest in other public infrastructure, under the guise of protest, is nothing but self-destruction. The government of Lagos and the Federal Government will have to re-invest scarce resources that could have been used for other things to rebuild the vandalised facilities.”
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said his administration was doing all it could to support those whose businesses were destroyed and create ambience for commercial activities to get back stronger.