Memo To Gov Fashola On Security Measures At Ikeja City Mall – Lolade Bamidele

Your Excellency Our Dear Governor Fashola,
I won’t attempt to waste your time. What strikes me very strongly and presses the need for this communication on me happened in the past few days. The first was the very recent security battle with the Boko Haram insurgents in Abuja, which brings home the fact that no where is actually perfectly safe in this country, and the possibility of an attack is closer to us than we might think. If they could get to Abuja, they will certainly consider Lagos a possible target in no far future. 2. The Kenya Mall attack makes it very clear how susceptible we all could very well be in the Ikeja and Surulere neighbourhoods and on the Lagos Islands.

Sir, most of these very cowardly insurgents are targeting very large conurbations and points-of-convergence, and being a resident of Ikeja, it strikes we how very vulnerable and susceptible we all are if insurgents decide to target the Ikeja City Mall. I believe that we all need to be extremely proactive at this point henceforth. We should not wait till it happens before we start considering security measures on how to protect large-scale points-of-convergence in the city.
In terms of scenario-mapping, supposing insurgents sneak in on us and start hauling grenades and shooting wildly at the Ikeja City Mall on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon – which is the largest peak hour – when thousands of families, shoppers and visitors are thronging the mall; could you imagine the level of carnage and pandemonium this can lead to? That will be grand-scale pain for Lagosians, and the DEATH of the Mall and other similar points-of-convergence in the city. It has just happened in Kenya and we shouldn’t just merely hope or pray that it can’t happen to us in Nigeria, and Lagos.
As such sir, I believe we all need proactive measures and to start devising methods and means of how to protect our lives, Malls and other large-scale points-of-convergence in the city from the possibility of attack, both on the level of the government and citizens. I believe that you have the moral and intellectual capacity to lead a security-conscious government/residents movement to forestall and respond to such a possibility. The time to start planning and working against this is NOW. God bless you. God bless Lagos. And God bless Nigeria. Eko o ni baaje o! Not in your time. Not after you. Amen. Lets all make a stitch in time, so that we don’t need any other stitches. Eku ise o!