Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, on Wednesday condemned what it termed the desecration of federal spirit with which the country is supposed to be governed as demonstrated by the exchanges between Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State and officers of the Nigerian Police Force on Tuesday.
The organisation, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, said the confession by the CSP who led the police team to Magodo Estate that he had to disobey the governor as he said he took orders from appointed officials in Abuja exposed the lie that Nigeria is practising a federal system of government.
According to him, while the country is officially called Federal Republic of Nigeria and the state governors dub as the Chief Security Officers of their states, when Governor Sanwo-olu wanted to take a step he considered necessary for the issue at hand an obstacle was put on his way.
He added that that that came through two officers of the federal government that were appointed by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF).
Ajayi then demanded unreserved apologies from the IGP and the AGF for the despicable affront.
He called for an immediate take-off of state police by any state that is ready to establish such, insisting that Nigeria should no longer be ran as a country under a unitary system of government.
He warned that the tendency to resort to self help in enforcing court judgements was condemnable.
He asked: “Were the police being fair in following one party to go and enforce what was considered to be an order of the court?”
The Afenifere spokesperson insisted that court orders were supposed to be respected summarily, noting that where a party failed to do that there were established legal processes to handle such a situation.
While imploring everyone to toe the path of legality, fairness and justice and not to employ self help to enforce even their rights as doing so may be detrimental to overall common interest, Ajayi called for the disbandment and repudiation of all practices that are impeding the practice and application of true federalism in the country.
