27th June, 2015
Kazeem Ugbodaga
The Lagos State Government on Saturday demolished the headquarters of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment programme, SURE-P taskforce at the old tollgate axis, along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
The demolition was on the order of the State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode. The governor had ordered the office of the Lagos State Taskforce on Environmental and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit to demolish the structure last week.
Over 5,000 SURE-P taskforce thugs were being trained by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, before and during the last election to foment trouble in Lagos State, but the taskforce was torn apart after the PDP chieftain sponsoring them refused to pay them for over eight months.
Over the years, the SURE-P headquarters also housed the then FERMA thugs which the former Minister of Works, Adeseye Ogunlewe used in unleashing terror on Lagos during the reign of former Governor Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to enable PDP capture the State.
The taskforce officials stormed the headquarter Saturday and demolished the structures. Debris and heap of documents used by the agency were sighted been carted away from the scene by trucks.
Taskforce Chairman, Hakeem Adedeji, said the reason for the demolition of the place was to the best knowledge of the Governor because he was the one who directed that the buildings should be pulled down for the interest of the public.
He said he believed that the governor must have issued the directive based on the abandonment and conversion of the building into hideout by miscreants.
“In fact when we arrived, we couldn’t find any Federal Government officials inside the building, rather the street urchins. And there is need to avoid that. And that was why we believe that if the building is demolished, no one will convert it for as hideout.
“We should have demolished the structure since Monday but we had to follow due process before embarking on the demolition exercise. And all these are geared towards ensuring that the rights of the citizen are not infringed upon,” he said.