Fashola Deployed Troops In Lagos – Nigerian Army

LAGOS STATE GOVERNOR, MR BABATUNDE RAJI FASHOLA.

… Foreign Interests, CPC Hijacked Genuine Protests Against Fuel Subsidy Removal And Calls For Better Governance

SAN FRANCISCO, January 19, (THEWILL) – Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, and not the Federal Government, approved the deployment of soldiers currently occupying strategic locations in Lagos State, the Defence Headquarters declared in Abuja Thursday.

Recall that soldiers were drafted to maintain law and order in the state after the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress cancelled the nationwide protests and strike it had earlier called following the withdrawal of subsidy on petrol.

In a briefing with Defence correspondents in Abuja, the Director of Defence Information, Colonel Mohammed Yerima, said the impression that it was the FG that approved the deployment of troops is accurate and a misrepresentation of the truth.

Yerima said the soldiers on the streets of Lagos are those from the Special Task Force, Operation MESA, commissioned and funded by the Lagos State government, long before the present fuel subsidy crisis, to support the operations of the police in the state in securing lives and properties.

Defence Headquarters added that all the soldiers deployed were drawn from Lagos contrary to reports that they were deployed from outside the state.

“The attention of the Defence Headquarters has been drawn to the unsubstantiated claims by a section of the public alleging that the Federal Government ordered the deployment of troops in Lagos to halt protests against the fuel subsidy removal.

“While the Defence Headquarters do not wish to join issues with any individual or groups regarding the matter, we wish to state categorically, in the interest of the larger society, that there is no element of truth in those claims.

“The soldiers seen on the streets of Lagos are still the same men of the Special Task Force code-named Operation MESA set up and sponsored by the Lagos State government long before the fuel subsidy protest, for the purpose of supporting the civil police in protecting life and property, as is the case in many parts of the country,” Yerima said.

Recall that Lagos State Governor, Mr. Fashola had in a broadcast in the state given the impression that the troops were deployed by President Goodluck Jonathan and had appealed that they be withdrawn in the interest of democracy.

However, in a swift reaction to the Defence headquarters’ statement, the Lagos State government has challenged the military to show proof that the state government indeed requested that troops be deployed in the state.

Meanwhile, as earlier reported in THEWILL during the fuel subsidy removal dispute, it has emerged that the security report that prompted labour’s decision to call off protests nationwide revealed that opposition parties, group of persons, and foreign interests had planned to use the strike to force a regime change in the country.

The leadership of some NGO’s who receive foreign funding had hijacked the protests to promote their own agendas contrary to the genuine push of labour unions and many Nigerians that naively co-opted them into the struggle.

Groups like Action Aid Nigeria, a splinter faction of the Save Nigeria Group led by the former Vice Presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Pastor Tunde Bakare, and a New York based online publication funded by foreign interests had capitalized on the protests to call for a regime change and had hinged their bet on promoting unrest in the South West just like the Boko Haram sect had made some sections of the north unstable security wise. Their goal was to either force a radical regime change using the army or move Nigeria towards the brink of collapse as being pandered by a section of the West.

When labour leaders realized their scam, they dumped the groups and issued a statement denouncing the call for regime change, saying their struggle was purely to restore the price of petrol to N65 and responsible governance.

THEWILL can also authoritatively report that most of the musicians and entertainers that performed at the rallies the groups held at the Gani Fawenhimi Freedom Park were paid to perform contrary to the impression given that they voluntarily turned up in support of the group’s push.

Mallam Nasir El-rufai, also a member of the CPC, who had been detailed to mobilize the plot in Abuja was abandoned mid way by labour leaders when they realized that the group had planned to use the genuine protests against the hike in the price of petrol and the demand for better governance, for their sinister plot to force regime change having woefully failed at April’s general elections.