LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT MUST STOP CRIMINALISATION OF POOR, HOMELESS AND UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE
LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT MUST STOP CRIMINALISATION OF POOR, HOMELESS AND UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE
Stop all attacks against attacks on democratic rights
The Lagos State Chapter of the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) strongly condemns the heightening rate of assault on democratic rights of ordinary citizens by the Lagos State Government through the Lagos State Special Offences Law. We condemn the harrowing experiences that the poor, homeless and unemployed people are subjected to daily through unjust arrests, arraignment and summary trial under the Lagos Special Offences Law in the hands of various repressive agencies of the Lagos State Government including, but not limited to, the notorious “Kick Against Indiscipline” (KAI) and the Lagos State Monitoring and Enforcement Taskforce.
We view the Lagos State Special Offences Law as draconian and inhuman, and demand that it should be repealed by the Lagos State House of Assembly. We contend that it is clearly irresponsible for the Lagos State Government to arrest people for being “jobless” and “homeless” and arraign them in court without any serious programme of the state government to provide decent jobs or proper housing for them.
We condemn the activities of the Lagos State Monitoring and Enforcement Taskforce, popularly called “Taskforce” which have become notorious for hounding petty traders and their wares into their “Black Maria” at the slightest hint for “illegal trading”. The Lagos State Street Trading Prohibition Law which is the instrument under which these activities are perpetrated should be reviewed by the Lagos State House of Assembly to take cognizance of the duty incumbent on the Lagos State Government to provide proper and well-built trading clusters for these traders, who are forced by their economic circumstances to trade in the open, instead of hounding them into jail.
We condemn the current parlous situation wherein the Kirikiri and Badagry prisons have become over-congested with hundreds of poor people who are victims of this draconian law while 1 percent of the population organised as the political class milk the country dry through brazen looting are “untouched” and are roaming the streets free!
We hold that the actions of the Lagos State Government through KAI and TASKFORCE is in continuation of the elitist, anti-poor policies of the All Progressives Congress (APC) This explained why it imposed outrageous fees at Lagos State University beyond the capacity of the poor before it was forced to reverse by the struggle of workers and students as well as fear of losing last election. The state government has also demolished houses of the poor without providing alternative and deported many poor people to other states in the country. We hold that the “Lagos” of the dream of the Lagos State Government is the “Lagos” of the “mega-city” for the “mega-rich” and with no room for the “mega- poor”.
We call for mass campaign in the communities against these attacks. We call on the ordinary people, the unemployed, homeless and jobless in Lagos State to undertake mass actions against this assault on democratic rights. We hold that only by such mass movement that these anti-poor laws and actions of Lagos State Government can be defeated.