Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has directed the Lagos State Scholarship Board to award scholarships to the children of policemen who lost their lives during the violence that trailed the #EndSARS protest.
Sanwo-Olu gave the directive on Wednesday when he visited the Lagos Police Command HQ, Ikeja where he met with Police Officers in the Command including CP, DIG, AIG Zone 2 All Area Commanders, All DPOs across the State.
While addressing the officers and men of the Command, Sanwo-Olu assured them that families of their dead colleagues would be compensated.
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The Next Edition had reported earlier that no fewer than 29 divisional police stations and 17 police posts were razed by hoodlums, while six police officers were killed, 36 critically injured and 71 police vehicles burnt, during the unrest, according to the Command.
Speaking on Wednesday, the governor stated that the state would rebuild all burnt police stations and replace operational vehicles that were destroyed by the hoodlums who hijacked the peaceful #EndSARS protest.
Sanwo-Olu, who said his visit was to boost the morale of the cops following the demoralising event noted that the statutory duties of the police could not be wished away because of the actions of a few bad eggs.
According to him, the impact of the police officers’ absence on the roads was being felt by residents.
The governor said, “The Commissioner of Police has come forward with a number of requests, which we will need to address to boost the morale of officers after last week’s event. As your governor, I have come here to take full responsibility for the loss you have suffered in terms of logistics. From tomorrow (Thursday), we will start implementing these requests.
“Through the Lagos State Security Trust Fund, we will be replacing the police operational vehicles burnt in the violence. We have bigger plans for all the police stations burnt down. We will look for the funds and build befitting stations that will set the standard of what police stations should be.
“The most important request is to offer scholarships to the children of officers that died. I have directed the Lagos State Scholarship Board under the Special Adviser on Education to immediately award scholarships to the children of the slain officers.”
Police officers serving in Lagos, according to Sanwo-Olu, will also get life insurance from the state government.
The governor also promised to donate two 150Kva generators to the police, adding that the command headquarters would be connected to the state’s Independent Power Project for constant power supply.
Some other requests from the state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu which the governor acceded to, include; that the state should pick the bills of officers currently in the hospital, bear the cost of buying the dead, help continue the building of the L-Wing to a U-Wing at the Command HQ and upgrade the Police Cottage hospital.
The governor once again used the occasion of the visit to reach out to Lagosians to come together to heal the land.
Relying on the words of scripture in Ecclesiastes 3: 1 – 8, Sanwo-Olu said: “We are in the season of peace. The time has changed. The calling has changed. We need to heal ourselves.”
To those whom he said were using the social media to push forward false narratives aimed at dividing the people, he said: “You cannot break us. We are moving forward. We have done everything that we need to do. We will not join issues with anybody.
“We will Heal our land, We will heal our people, Lagos will come out stronger, bigger and better.”
