Hottestgistnaija.com
With due regards, I have the pleasure to introduce to you, the above named body which is a civil society organization at the forefront of the agitation for a democratic, peaceful and orderly society built on strict observance of due process and rule of law in our national life.
We wish to bring to your notice for urgent redress, threats to the constitution, public peace, health, democratic and economic rights of Lagosians by the indiscriminate and unregulated pasting of posters and billboards of political parties, ahead of the 2015 general elections.
We are concerned about the indiscriminate and unregulated pasting of posters by political parties, which are nauseating, offensive, constitute environmental nuisance, degradation, hazardous to health and is a strong potential for breakdown of law and order.
Our investigation revealed that this act of lawlessness and impunity has resulted in the termination of two outdoor agencies advertisements by their sponsors and economic loss to the tune of over N350 million naira to the national economy. As is expected, more is to follow, whose consequences on our already comatose economy is better imagined.
Sir, we are quite aware that your office in utter disregard to your oath is responsible for engineering this flagrant violation of the constitution based on your press statement of 5th January 2015, whereby you served notice that you have directed your men and officers in the state to arrest personnel of the Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency (LASAA) from performing their statutory function.
For your information Sir, LASAA is an agency set up by the Lagos State government under the laws of Lagos State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to regulate and control outdoor signage advertisements and hoardings in Lagos State, which it has been performing professionally well.
However, we are disturbed that your office, which is constitutionally empowered to maintain public peace, order and synergize with other state agencies for public good, is seen as a protagonist of this latest acts of lawlessness and impunity which has the potential to threaten public peace and tranquility.
We are disappointed that the police as an agency of the state set up by law can threaten and intimidate another agency of the state, (LASAA) established by the same law from performing its statutory responsibilities.
Therefore sir, we regard this action of yours as barbaric, illegal, irresponsible, unconstitutional and an embarrassment to the image of the Nigeria police force which is unacceptable.
In view of the above, we demand the following:
1. Immediate retraction of your threat to public health and peace directives against LASAA.
2. Immediate apology to the good people of Lagos State in particular and Nigerians in general for threats to public peace and order 3. Immediate apology to the management and staff of LASAA for this assault on their sensibilities. 4. Immediate guarantee of the safety of personnel of LASAA from attacks and arrest by your men in the discharge of their functions.
5. Immediate apology to the Police Service Commission for bringing the image of the Nigeria police to public ridicule.
Sir, failure to comply with the above legitimate demands within 7 days from date of receipt, we will be left with no other option but to explore alternative legitimate means to seek redress.
