#EndSARS: El-Rufai ‘sad’ over destruction in Lagos, pledges support

Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, on Thursday, said he is saddened by the gravity of the destruction witnessed in Lagos, following the hijack of peaceful #EndSARS protests by hoodlums.

Accodding to the governor, the mayhem was “pure evil,” adding that he nearly shed tears as he flipped through the images of the affected torched public and privately- owned assets.

El-Rufai shared the thoughts when he visited the State House, Marina to commiserate with his Lagos State counterpart over the sad incidence, lamenting that Lagos, which accounted for one-third of National Gross Domestic Product (GDP), did not deserve to suffer such pain.

He, however, assured that Kaduna was ready to offer whatever support to ensure Lagos was back on track.

“I have spent time to see some of the pictures of the destruction done on public properties 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,” El-Rufai said.

“While expressing anger on police brutality may be right, but 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.

“As a colleague, I can confirm that the governor of Lagos did all that could be done to ensure that this destruction does not take place. It is very sad to see what had happened in Lagos. I want to assure you that we will support you getting Lagos back on track. We will give whatever support Lagos needs from us to get back better”.

The Kaduna governor, while acknowledging that the youth protest against the police was not out of order, posited that it was wrong for the protesters to call for disbandment of the entire police force because of the action of a few bad eggs within the system.