Robbery: Fashola’s allegation against Jonathan irresponsible, says Presidency

The Presidency on Friday described as irresponsible and unintelligent the statement credited to Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State

to the effect that the robbery incident that occurred on Thursday in Lekki‎, Lagos, succeeded due to the presence of President Goodluck Jonathan in the state on the day.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, made the Presidency’s position known in an interview with State House correspondents in Abuja.

Three policemen and a fish seller were said to have been killed on Thursday by a gang of robbers, who stormed the FCMB on Admiralty Way in Lekki, Lagos State.

Fashola was alleged to have claimed that all the policemen, who should have been responsible for security in the state, had been deployed to provide security for Jonathan during the incident, where the bandits, numbering 13, reportedly shot sporadically for about 30 minutes.

But Abati said the Presidency viewed the governor’s statement as “grossly and utterly irresponsible.”

He said he expected that a man of Fashola’s status should speak more responsibly.

He said it did not make any sense that the entire police formation in the state would be deployed to protect the President during his visit that saw him sounding the gong to signal the closing of business at the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Abati said, “The visit of the President to Lagos or any part of the country does not necessitate the depletion of the police force active in that particular state or environment.

“The President has a defined team that protects him anywhere he goes.

“And again, President Jonathan does not need the entire police force in Lagos State to protect him in a state where he is loved by the people and where as we have seen, he enjoys overwhelming support in the lead up to the 2015 presidential elections.

“We do not only consider Governor Babatunde Fashola’s statement as irresponsible, we also think that it is unintelligent because it flies in the face of facts and it just does not add up.

“We hope that Governor Fashola, in an attempt to play politics, will not continue as his party does to play politics with the lives of people.

“People died in that unfortunate incident and President Jonathan commiserate with the affected families.

“But we will find it really cheap and disgusting that the governor of a state will now see that, an occasion of bereavement affecting the number of families, as an opportunity to play very cheap and irresponsible politics.”