Police Deployed To Magodo Defy Sanwo-Olu’s Order, Urges Governor To Call IGP

An unnamed Chief Superintendent of Police on Tuesday openly defied the order of the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to vacate the Magodo Phase 2 Estate area of the state.

The CSP told the governor that he and his armed colleagues were at the estate on the orders of the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba; as well as the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN).

Sanwo-Olu had led members of his cabinet to visit the residents protesting against the continuous presence of armed policemen in the estate.

For days, policemen, who accompanied suspected land grabbers and members of a family who had planned to demolish property in the estate to execute a Supreme Court judgment, have besieged the estate, and the development has caused commotion at the estate as landlords and tenants panic over their fate.

The residents had called on the governor to intervene and Sanwo-Olu who visited the scene on Tuesday told the leader of the police delegation that the land matter was a case between private individuals and the state government.

Sanwo-Olu said, “Can you call your superiors in Abuja and tell them that the governor is here and as the Chief Security Officer, you don’t have any business being in my state right now and I want you to disengage right now?”

But the unnamed CSP replied, “I am here on the instruction of the Inspector General of Police through the AGF. I am too small or too low to call them. Your Excellency sir, you can call them sir.”

The PUNCH had earlier reported that the 17 Southern governors in July 2021 resolved that security agencies must notify them as the chief security officer of their states before they carry out any operation within their domain but the IGP and the Federal Government continue to do otherwise.