Lekki Robbery: Fashola’s Aide Berates Abati, Describes Him “A serial Reckless Talker”

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News, Nigeria 2015 Election Tuesday, March 17th, 2015

By Ayo Balogun, Lagos – Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola has replied Dr. Reuben Abatti over comment he made at the weekend on Fashola over last week’s robbery in Lekki, saying that the President Goodluck Jonathan’s spokesman is simply a serial reckless talker.

Abati has attacked Fashola for linking Jonathan with the robbery when he said many policemen were taking off the area to provide security for the president which the robbers capitalised on to rob the bank, saying that the governor was completely irresponsible for making such statement.

Fashola, reacting to this development said from the statement credited to the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity. Dr. Abati over the comments he made, it is obvious he is ignorant of the traffic and security menace, his principal constitutes whenever he visits any part of the country.

Special Adviser to the Governor on Information and Strategy, Lateef Raji, who spoke on behalf of the governor said it should also interest the ‘Vuvuzuela’ of President Jonathan that during these visits, which most of the times are for campaign hustles, the entire Police and other security network are put on high alert to pay attention to the presidential visits leaving the citizens vulnerable to the reckless gallivanting of the visitor.

“Abatti must be sleeping or indulging in his usual pastimes not to understand ‘route lining’ where every available policeman on duty is deployed to man routes where the President would pass through. It is not the statement of the Governor that is unintelligent, the unintelligent thing here is the inability of the President to weigh public interest above personal ambition.

“The unintelligent thing here is not to know the importance of the Police as an institution that deserves adequate funding to carry out its function of protecting life and property. The unintelligent thing is the Federal Government dodging its constitutional responsibility of which the Police is one of them.

“Governor Fashola is a very responsible Governor who put the people first ahead of himself, and this he has demonstrated over the years. He made reference to the dead policemen because he feels responsible to them. At the event, he prayed for the repose of their souls and enjoined the audience to stand with him in a one minute-silence over the fallen heroes whom he concluded died in the cause of serving their country,” he said.

Raji added that Abatti could not comprehend why Governor Fashola would be shocked at the death of three policemen; “we have not had such an experience in the past two years here in Lagos where policemen are killed by armed robbers. This is a different situation where it took the death of almost 20,000 citizens before someone started to take action.

When the ocean surge was going to wipe out a whole community within the Lekki area, Fashola was there. When the Dana aircraft crashed in Iju, Fashola was not only there, his arrival at the scene was prompt, and for the first time in the history of Nigeria, we saw a systematic and methodological approach to emergency management.

“Mass DNA was conducted to identify the charred bodies of the victims. Trauma and psychological centres were established to attend to the families of the victims. As recent as few days ago, Fashola was at Papa Ashafa and Agege communities where rainstorm wreaked havoc.”

He said when Abati’s principal was holed up in Aso Rock Villa with his tails between his legs during the outbreak of the Ebola Virus in Nigeria, Fashola’s face was the succour and hope Nigerians saw, saying that he was the only person the victims and survivors saw, adding that “this vuvuzuela should be courteous in his choice of words.”

“We are, however, not surprised. Abati is a serial reckless talker that likes listening to himself, and only thinks after talking. Latter converts like him acts up to become more catholic than the Pope because of the fear to the past after the allure of office.

“His recent unguarded statement about General Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd) is still very fresh. If the retired General had not been a statesman, only God knows where Abati would be by now. It’s time someone close to this garrulous man tells him to start measuring his utterances,” he stated.