Lagos Deputy Governor, Obafemi Hamzat has announced that the state government under the leadership of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, would support owners of stores that were vandalised by hoodlums during the recent civil unrest in some parts of the state.
Hamzat, who took to his Twitter page to make this promise, shared a link to a form, and advised vandalised store owners to fill.
The form requirement includes the name of the business, location of the business, the estimated amount of loss, photos of damages, number of employees, amongst other information.
“if you are a Lagos based business and your store got looted or vandalized this week, please fill the form by @LSETFhttps://t.co/lwPiXvFzTp. Let’s do what we can to support you,” he wrote.
Prior to when the deputy governor made this disclosure, Sanwo Olu had expressed his commitment to rebuild the state, saying the state had activated the process of healing from the large scale destruction after moving around the state to inspect assets destroyed by the hoodlums taking stock of losses to the government and private business.
His words: “My heart bled after I went out today for a first hand assessment of the destruction of assets of government and private properties. The level of destruction observed indicated that the violence was more than just a peaceful protest and agitations for police reforms. The proportion of devastation is a lot. This is not the Lagos that was handed over to me in May 29, 2019;
“Moving forward from destruction, we have to continue the process of healing ourselves. We need to stop some of our citizens still using social media to instigate or incite the people. It will not be under my watch that we will lose the city that has the largest economy in the entire black nation. Enough is enough. I have moved around and I saw that our people want peace. On this we are committed to bringing lasting peace back to the state.”
It came as a shock to many Nigerians as suspected hoodlums hijacked the peaceful protest of concerned Nigerians who took to the street to make a case against police brutality, and vandalised properties, and looting shops and stores across the state.
Many private and public businesses like –Filmhouse Cinemas, GTBank, amongst others, have suffered losses, running to millions of naira.
As expected, when things return back to their normal state, businesses will start to take stock of their losses and someone will have to bear the loss.
However, this assistance coming from Lagos state is a good development in recovering and rebuilding the state, knowing fully well that quite a number of people do not insure their businesses.
