Kwankwaso in secret Lagos meeting
MAY 26, 2013
Kano State Governor, Rabi'u Musa Kwankwaso
Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, on Wednesday paid an unscheduled visit to the Mile 12 Market, Lagos State, and held a secret meeting with Hausa traders.
SUNDAY PUNCH learnt that the governor’s visit centred on security and sanitation in the market.
It was learnt that the governor in his address, told the traders not to allow themselves to be used in perpetrating crimes.
The governor, who came with light security, urged the traders to live in harmony with their host community by being law-abiding.
The Financial Secretary, Mile 12 Perishable Foodstuff Association, Mr. Shehu Usman, who confirmed Kwankwaso’s visit, said the meeting lasted for about 20 minutes.
He said the governor told them to remain focused on their businesses and obey the laws of the state.
He said, “If you remember, when Ladipo Auto spare parts market was locked, the Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, visited the Igbo traders. Kwakwanso’s visit was similar to that.
“Most of the traders in Mile 12 are Hausa. So, Kano governor came to visit us to encourage us. He also warned us against allowing ourselves to be used by criminal elements.
“He said we should continue to do everything to make our community peaceful especially in this period of Boko Haram attacks.”
Kwankwaso, it was learnt, urged the traders to keep him abreast of challenges they face and promised to assist them in every way possible.
It was learnt that the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, sent a representative to the meeting.
The representative, who is also the state’s Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Mrs. Olusola Oworu, urged the traders to continue to keep the market clean so that the government would not close it.
Lagos State has come under tight security watch since security agents foiled a terrorist plot in March after arresting a Chadian with explosives in Ijora area of the state.
Following the incident, the police restored checkpoints in some areas of the state while the Nigerian Immigration Service has deported over 500 Nigeriens.
The state’s Taskforce on Environment and Special Offences Unit has also been carrying out daily raids in order to flush out illegal aliens in the state.
Meanwhile, the Comptroller, NIS, Lagos State Command, Rasheed Odupeyin, has said some of the people being arrested during raids by the task force were not illegal aliens.
Odupeyin, who spoke with our correspondent on the telephone on Friday, urged the state government to include the NIS in the state’s security council so that innocent Nigerians would not be arrested and detained unjustly.
He said, “A lot of people being arrested as illegal aliens are actually northern Nigerians and not illegal aliens but the police find it difficult to differentiate them from Nigeriens.
“Immigration officers are trained to know the difference and I think the sooner we are carried along, the better because most times, innocent Nigerians would have been detained for days before screening proves that they are innocent.”
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