“It is not in our DNA to allow someone to just die by road accident or the way it happened in respect of the incident.
But beyond the fact that we lost one person while crossing the road as a result of evading arrest by KAI officials, I need to tell Lagosians that over 49 buses were actually destroyed
and it is costing us like almost N139m to put those buses back on the road." - Gov. Ambode

The speech above was the governor's reaction to the incident that occurred earlier this week in Maryland, Lagos state. I am shocked that a sitting governor will say "beyond the fact that we lost one person......over 49 buses were destroyed and it will cost N139m." So the life of a Nigerian is nothing compared to the millions he mentioned? Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, that person was someone's son, brother, uncle, friend and above all a creature of God. You did not have to dismiss his death like it was one chicken that got killed on the road. He probably was one of the voters who gave you your mandate after standing in the sun just to cast his vote for you. I am truly shocked and disappointed in your statement and I expect you to retract that statement and issue a public apology to the parents of that Nigerian who could have been you if things had not been the way they are or even your own child or nephew. Law enforcement agents have caused so much avoidable deaths in the discharge of their duties in the most inhumane approach. Why chase someone on the highway? Please chase armed robbers in that way and not unarmed hungry Nigerians seeking for their daily bread. Govern with a human face. All power belongs to God! There is a day of reckoning! Do not destroy what you cannot create!

[quote author=chuxjay post=47126682]“It is not in our DNA to allow someone to just die by road accident or the way it happened in respect of the incident.
But beyond the fact that we lost one person while crossing the road as a result of evading arrest by KAI officials, I need to tell Lagosians that over 49 buses were actually destroyed
and it is costing us like almost N139m to put those buses back on the road." - Gov. Ambode

The speech above was the governor's reaction to the incident that occurred earlier this week in Maryland, Lagos state. I am shocked that a sitting governor will say "beyond the fact that we lost one person......over 49 buses were destroyed and it will cost N139m." So the life of a Nigerian is nothing compared to the millions he mentioned? Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, that person was someone's son, brother, uncle, friend and above all a creature of God. You did not have to dismiss his death like it was one chicken that got killed on the road. He probably was one of the voters who gave you your mandate after standing in the sun just to cast his vote for you. I am truly shocked and disappointed in your statement and I expect you to retract that statement and issue a public apology to the parents of that Nigerian who could have been you if things had not been the way they are or even your own child or nephew. Law enforcement agents have caused so much avoidable deaths in the discharge of their duties in the most inhumane approach. Why chase someone on the highway? Please chase armed robbers in that way and not unarmed hungry Nigerians seeking for their daily bread. Govern with a human face. All power belongs to God! There is a day of reckoning! Do not destroy what you cannot create! [



Abeg park well

i don park well but it could have been you or any of your relatives.... when the corpse of a stranger is being carried, you'll see it as a piece of wood but when it's the corpse of a beloved one, only the will u realise it is a human. i rest my case

If you do need to know that street trading is a crime in lagos ,...............
It has been a crime for close to 100 years; albeit a minor crime . The government has chosen to enforce the laws of the land,for the first time in a very long time.
Street trading is the first sign of lawlessness anywhere in the world. Do you see the same in dubai in dubai you love going? The street peddling of products in an unregulated manner not only facilitate the environment of "anything goes", those traders also undercut the traders who have chosen to rent a shop/spot, pay taxes and obey the law.
It is not uncommon to see peddlers selling right in front of another person's shop.
It also result in the loss of revenues for the government as unscrupulous manufacturers use this cover to avoid VAT.
Without street trading, the government can move towards mandating all sellers of goods and services to operate with cash registers and terminals.
This way,all sales can be tracked and the appropriate taxes(VAT) collected.
Poverty is not an excuse. Almost everyone of them left the rural areas to come and live a life of poverty /lawlessness in the city.
It is not the duty of the government to facilitate this behaviour and the government must not encourage it.
The dead chose to resist arrest and he paid dearly with his life.

oduastates:
746(‹
The dead chose to resist arrest and he paid dearly with his life.

This is the most callous statement ever made.
Some famous and rich pple in Nigeria and abroad hawked items too to survive.Can u predict what d hawker that died cud have in his future life?
Some of u pple are so annoying with statements u make

I see LASG avenging the destruction of the buses by the rampaging hawkers.
The law has always been there as I'm being made to understand, they're just about to be enforced.

Let's not play holier than thou in this kind of scenario. It's not as if it's a case of extrajudicial killing. He was evading justice for a particular wrongdoing & he met an untimely death. Note that they didn't wish him dead.
His death has now taken food from the mouth of other hapless hawkers who have nowhere but the streets.
My heart goes out to his family, whom rely on him for daily means.
But we must always remember that there are consequences for our choices. Some may be very unfortunate.

The governor was spot on.

Why running away in Lagos traffic that you know is very dangerous.

These hawkers know it is illegal to hawk yet still go ahead.

The government has been lenient with them.

If you didnt hawk, you wont be pursued.

And if you hawk and you are caught, dont run but submit yourself to arrest.

Only criminals run when they sight the presence of security officials.

Op is very delirious, am not a fan of ambode but I watched the program, the governor started by offering his condolence to the family of the deceased, that shows respect of life to you op, after that he moved in to explain what happened, we Nigerians should stop being unnecessary emotional, what if the dead vote for him, is that a pass to commit crimes? Lagos was far better when fashola stopped traffic trading and beggers, Ambode relaxed those laws and there was chaos.

oduastates:
If you do need to know that street trading is a crime in lagos ,...............
It has been a crime for close to 100 years; albeit a minor crime . The government has chosen to enforce the laws of the land,for the first time in a very long time.
Street trading is the first sign of lawlessness anywhere in the world. Do you see the same in dubai in dubai you love going? The street peddling of products in an unregulated manner not only facilitate the environment of "anything goes", those traders also undercut the traders who have chosen to rent a shop/spot, pay taxes and obey the law.
It is not uncommon to see peddlers selling right in front of another person's shop.
It also result in the loss of revenues for the government as unscrupulous manufacturers use this cover to avoid VAT.
Without street trading, the government can move towards mandating all sellers of goods and services to operate with cash registers and terminals.
This way,all sales can be tracked and the appropriate taxes(VAT) collected.
Poverty is not an excuse. Almost everyone of them left the rural areas to come and live a life of poverty /lawlessness in the city.
It is not the duty of the government to facilitate this behaviour and the government must not encourage it.
The dead chose to resist arrest and he paid dearly with his life.

street trading is a crime and I do not support it as such but for an official to chase an offender to his death was not appropriate and proper. he knew better than chasing him into such a situation. let's be humane in our thinking. if he had been arrested,he would probably have to spend all he had worked for and even more just to get out of the trouble he found himself. there are better ways of apprehending them than a wild chase of death. You can only be grateful to God for tge life you have

masseratti:
Op is very delirious, am not a fan of ambode but I watched the program, the governor started by offering his condolence to the family of the deceased, that shows respect of life to you op, after that he moved in to explain what happened, we Nigerians should stop being unnecessary emotional, what if the dead vote for him, is that a pass to commit crimes? Lagos was far better when fashola stopped traffic trading and beggers, Ambode relaxed those laws and there was chaos.

voting for him was really not an excuse to break laws but he should not have sounded like the young lad's life meant nothing compared to the cost of fixing the buses. i am not being sentimental but just human

segebobo:
I see LASG avenging the destruction of the buses by the rampaging hawkers.
The law has always been there as I'm being made to understand, they're just about to be enforced.

i am in total support of the enforcement of every Nigerian and Lagos state laws but not in a way that endangers the life of it's citizens

chuxjay:



voting for him was really not an excuse to break laws but he should not have sounded like the young dad's life meant nothing compared to the cost of fixing the buses. i am not being sentimental but just human

he expressed his condolence to the dead, and there is nothing wrong in him telling the public the cost of the damage on both private and public properties, hr didn't sound anyhow.

masseratti:
he expressed his condolence to the dead, and there is nothing wrong in him telling the public the cost of the damage on both private and public properties, hr didn't sound anyhow.

Nobody loves to suffer or hussle under the hot sun. Don't you think if he had a choice he would have preferred to remain in the comfort of a shop and do his business or even sit in an office if given the opportunity

chuxjay:


Nobody loves to suffer or hussle under the hot sun. Don't you think if he had a choice he would have preferred to remain in the comfort of a shop and do his business or even sit in an office if given the opportunity

this excuse you just gave is why Our society is in mess, if there is no law enforcement there will be chaos, if the opportunities is not there to hawk or begg on the streets /highway no one would dare risk their lives in the 1st place.

chuxjay:


Nobody loves to suffer or hussle under the hot sun. Don't you think if he had a choice he would have preferred to remain in the comfort of a shop and do his business or even sit in an office if given the opportunity

Whatever situation you find yourself in , is not adequate reason for lawlessness.
If you commit an offence, and you are apprehended, resisting arrest adds to your crime. If you die in the process, blame yourself, although in this case I blame our faulty legal system and our incompetent law enforcement agents.
Nevertheless ignorance of the law is never an excuse

Proudlyngwa:

If you die in the process, blame yourself, although in this case I blame our faulty legal system and our incompetent law enforcement agents.
Nevertheless ignorance of the law is never an excuse

Very insensitive

He was right!

chuxjay:


Nobody loves to suffer or hussle under the hot sun. Don't you think if he had a choice he would have preferred to remain in the comfort of a shop and do his business or even sit in an office if given the opportunity

I will only respond because of this excuse.

The dapper windscreen cleaner has abandoned the offer to do something different and he is back on the streets.

Some people chose that life.

chuxjay:


Very insensitive

Rule of law and sensitivity to pain are not related

NewNigeriaMind:


I will only respond because of this excuse.

The dapper windscreen cleaner has abandoned the offer to do something different and he is back on the streets.

Some people chose that life.

we don't know the true and full story, let's not hastily jump to conclusion......

chuxjay:


Very insensitive

There is nothing insensitive in the fact that the Governor has shown no mercy to hawkers who have been told severally to leave the highways. The issue with most Nigerians when we analyze issues of this nature is that we don't have a good understanding of the cost of lawlessness. The life of everyone is at risk because of this menace. People sell weapons (cutlasses, knifes, fire extinguishers in traffic) and that sometimes late at night. These can be used by same hawkers to perpetrate evil in the slow moving traffic.

Street traders damage major roads in the dead of the night to generate traffic so they can sell their wares, this is definitely at the expense of someone else.

Someone already highlighted above the economic impact of hawkers.

There is no condition that farming cannot take care of. Street trading is one of the reasons why people abandon former education.

Let us seek to have a broad perspective of issues.