Hon. Wasiu Adekunle Agoro is the Executive Chairman, Imota Local Government Development Areas (LCDA) and a Prince of Imota in Ikorodu Division of Lagos State, Southwest, Nigeria.
He was former Secretary to the Imota LCDA and a very popular political figure within the Imota community.
He spoke with Publisher/Reporter – in – Chief, THE IMPACT newspaper briefly in his office in Imota LCDA on Friday, February 12, 2021, on many issues ranging from the ongoing APC registration, population demarcation exercise and security issues. Excerpts:
THE IMPACT: We have been around to monitor the APC registration exercise in Imota, what can you tell us about the exercise since its commencement?
Prince Agoro: The turnout has been impressive because my people have been looking forward to it since the announcement by the party. Our people are well informed because we have been able to sensitise them to come out en masse to register and revalidate their membership of the party. Also, many that also defected from other parties are also being encouraged to register with our party and they are in large numbers. In Imota LCDA, we are almost a one – party council because other parties have merged with us. So, the registration exercise has given them the opportunity of becoming a full – fledged member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Imota LCDA.
THE IMPACT: We noticed that many people are at the various registration points but are unable to register because most of the units are out of booklets, what are you doing to correct this?
Prince Agoro: We are still expecting more materials from our party in Lagos but in other to give our people confidence and not turn them back from the registration point, we are trying to put their names down in a book which are going to be transferred into the registration booklet when we are eventually supplied and also call them to come back to either sign or thumb print as appropriate. We have already provided cameras at every registration point to capture our people’s photographs. That is what we trying to do starting from tomorrow (Saturday) in Imota, pending the time that there will be booklets. We’ll discontinue that as soon as booklets are made available to us.
THE IMPACT: We are aware that officials of the National Population Commission (NPC) are around in Ikorodu and are moving round the councils in the division in preparation for the delineation exercise which is the prerequisite for the coming population census exercise. How is your council relating with them to ensure that areas are adequately captured for the census and how prepared is Imota for the exercise?
Prince Agoro: We are fully prepared in Imota because it is something that we have been looking forward to. The Ikorodu Division as a whole has been shortchanged because many areas were not covered in the last census exercise in 2006. But this time around, we are fully prepared and we have made provisions for NPC officials that are coming to various councils in Ikorodu. In Imota LCDA, we are expecting between 25 and 30 NPC officials and we have made provision for their accommodation for 30 days for the demarcation exercise and we have made arrangements with a reputable hotel. We are going to see to their welfare and security and moving around. We are also going to be responsible for their feeding three times daily for the 30 days. With this, they won’t have any cause not to deliver in Imota. We are fully prepared for them. I was at their training which they started yesterday with my other counterparts in other councils and we spoke with them on our preparations for them and they were very happy. We are going to ensure that every part of Imota LCDA is well demarcated in anticipation for the national population census coming up very soon.
THE IMPACT: One of the major resolutions at the town hall meeting with the Commissioner of Police held recently is that Council Chairmen should take charge of security in their respective domains. Sir, how have you taken charge of security in Imota? Secondly, there is also issue of security trust funds, what is the council also doing in this regard?
Prince Agoro: Imota is not in isolation of the insecurity issue in the division and majorly, the problem that we are having is a cultism issue which cuts across almost every part of the country but its upsurge is high in Ikorodu Division. We had our own share of it. The major problems that we are having which the Commissioner of Police promised to look into is the fact that Imota is bordered with villages and communities in Ogun State. When these boys perpetrate their evil acts, they escape into those places which we have no jurisdiction getting into. Though, the Lagos CP mentioned that the Police Commissioner in Ogun State is his boss and friend and they are going to collaborate in fishing these cultists out from their hiding places.
Presently, I have given a directive that motorcycles (Okada) and tricycles (Marwa) should not move around between 6.00pm in the evening and this has reduced their activities, though, we are still reporting pocket of them but it has reduced from what it used to be. There are so many other steps that we have taken but which I cannot disclose here because they are security issues.
The six Council Chairmen have also sought the support of the Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo – Olu who has promised to support us in many ways in making sure that we put a stop to the activities of these cultists. These are some of the attempts that we have made. Truly, we know that we are the Chief Security Officers in our respective councils but don’t forget that Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) in our localities are not answerable to us but we do as much as possible to collaborate with them. So also, one of the major steps that we have taken is to establish our own local security outfit which is named Imota Joint Task Force (JTF) with all the vigilance groups in the community. We are doing everything to screen them seriously. We are doing everything to ensure that we do not have these bad boys among them.
The Council has taken it upon itself in funding the activities of the JTF and making sure that criminal activities are reduced in Imota and very soon, every member of the community will see that peace has returned to Imota.
On the issue of security trust fund, if there is going to be one, it has to be Imota Security Trust Fund. The one that has been done in Ikorodu is meant for Ikorodu. The Onyabo that has been funded in Ikorodu are not here in Imota. Their presence is not here and we don’t have any personnel among them in Ikorodu. And you know that the distance from Imota to Ikorodu is like the Ikorodu garage to Ojota. So, when we are having any security challenge here, before anybody can get here from Ikorodu, a lot of damage would have been done. It is better for us to create our own here and also, the terrain is different too. Imota terrain is different from Ikorodu, Ikorodu is different from Ijede and Ijede differs from Ikorodu North. The arrangement must be localized. Though, I believe in a central unit to coordinate their (security arrangement) activities but it has to be localized because the cultists activities too are localized. That is the way we can tackle the problem headlong.
