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The Lagos state government has lamented the destruction on public infrastructure and private properties on account of last year’s EndSARS protest in the state.
Special Adviser to the Governor, Parastatals Monitoring Office (PMO), Afolabi Ayantayo, who disclosed this at a 2021 ministerial press briefing to mark the second year of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in office, said following the violence and the attendant heavy destruction of public and private properties, the state suffered a heavy damage to critical public property and that this nearly brought the state to a standstill economically.
He disclosed that parastatals were not spared, as their assets were either stolen or destroyed by the protesters.
He explained that to determine the level of the damage of the parastatals, the office carried out on-the- spot assessment of destroyed and stolen assets of the state’s parastatals.
“The report of the assessment has been forwarded to Mr. Governor. It is pertinent to mention here that 20 (Twenty) Parastatals were affected in varying degrees.They are: Lekki Concession Company, Motor Vehicle Administration Agency, Lagos State Fire Service, Lagos State Public Works Corporation, Lagos State Material Testing Laboratory, Lagos State Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, Lagos Bus Service Limited, Lagos Television, Lagos Internal Revenue Service, Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, Lagos State Agricultural, Inputs Supply Authority, Lagos State Multi-Door Courthouse, Citizens Mediation Centre, Ibeju-Lekki and Lagos State Resilience Office.
“Others are : Lagos State Printing Corporation, Lagos Drivers Institute, Oko-Afo, Badagry; Lagos State Building Control Agency, Lagos State Physical Planning Authority (Ibeju Lekki/Mainland Office), Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps and Lagos State Safety Commission”
He disclosed that the Lagos State government has commenced move to urgently review 54 obsolete laws in parastatals across the state.
He explained that the move was to raise the standard of performance of the parastatals and ensure that their mandates as established in their enabling laws could meet the service requirement of the 21st century society.
“The PMO, in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice through the Law Reform Commission Office embarked on the review of enabling laws of the Parastatals that are either obsolete or hindering their operational guidelines.
“A total number of 54 of such enabling laws have been forwarded to the Law Reform Commission for review. Hopefully, when the exercise is completed, affected agencies would have better enabling laws that would enhance their operations and deliver their services effectively,” he said.
He added that in the next few months, monitoring and evaluation would be intensified to ensure that the Parastatals keep to their key performance indicators (KPIs) for achievement of their set goals.”
According to him, reports generated from these would be forwarded to the governor to keep him abreast of the situations at the parastatals and government owned companies.
“We also want to intensify our efforts at getting entrepreneurs to establish business relationship with our parastatals and government owned companies. This will promote expertise, goal-driven activities, effective delivery of services to the people and achieving the 21st Century Economy of this administration.
“We will intensify efforts to ensure that all obsolete laws of the parastatals and government owned companies under review are completed,” he stated.
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