The Inspector-General of Police, Muhammed Adamu, on Tuesday, visited Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, at the State House in Marina.
The Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Gboyega Akoshile, who disclosed this in a statement, said Sanwo-Olu intimated the IGP on the move by the state government to rebuild the razed police stations and offer scholarships to the children of the officers killed in the violence.
In his response, Adamu lamented the extent of the damage caused by hoodlums during last month’s #EndSARS protests in the state.
The IGP said he was in Lagos for an assessment of the police assets vandalized after the protest and to commiserate with residents of the state.
The Lagos State government had declared that six police officers were lynched, 36 critically injured and 46 police stations torched by hoodlums across the state.
Adamu said: “Lagos was the epicenter where the #EndSARS protest took place and the number of destruction in the subsequent violence was more in Lagos than any other part. I came to commiserate with the governor and the people of the state. The destruction they suffered was uncalled for.
“The second leg of my visit is to see the police stations destroyed and boost the morale of our men in Lagos. We don’t want them to be demoralized by the event in which they suffered personal attacks. Policemen are trained to take such pain. Now that the event has happened, it shouldn’t discourage us from performing our constitutional duties.
“The scale of the destruction witnessed in Lagos and around the country called for the need by Nigerians to adopt standard protocols for public protests whenever they wanted to express their grievances against the system.
“It is very important to set up protocols that will prevent hoodlums to hijack peaceful protests organised with good intentions. The moment the protest organisers don’t have leadership, the purpose and intent of the effort would be defeated. As we have seen in the case of #EndSARS protest, no economy will be able to bear the loss that we have seen in Lagos.”
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