Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos State, has slammed his critics on the death of Ayanwola Oluwabamise, a 22-year-old fashion designer murdered after boarding a BRT bus in Lekki area of the state, accusing them of using the incident to score “cheap points.”
Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN, a human rights lawyer had accused the Lagos government of attempting a cover up by “packaging” Andrew Nice, the arrested BRT bus driver, whose vehicle the murdered Bamise boarded, during his media interview.
But speaking with journalists at an event to commemorate International Women’s Day, on Tuesday, Sanwo-Olu said his administration will not be deterred by the allegation of cover-up, while assuring residents and the deceased’s family that justice will be served.
“I have seen several narratives and write-ups about it. Some people are being extremely sensational, posting and saying that ‘Lagos state government wants to cover something that even my person wants to cover something’, the governor said.
“I think people trivialise life and make it look at everything as if they want to score a cheap point. I think this message should go to people like that — they are of low minds and have no conscience.”
The governor also explained that closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera was not installed in the BRT vehicle.
“I think it is important to say this. I have seen on social media, people are asking ‘you don’t have CCTV cameras in your cars and vehicles’. No, it is not true,” he said.
“In all of our BRT buses that we procured two and a half years ago, all of them have CCTV cameras and trackers. However the additional ones that we bought locally last year are the ones we have not installed CCTV cameras.
“Because you need to do a lot of configuration before you can put CCTV cameras in them so we are speaking with the manufacturers of that. I don’t need to mention names but they were purchased locally. That is the unfortunate one this particular incident happened.”
Sanwo-Olu advised Lagosians not to board a BRT bus of which lights, including the radar lights which indicate destination, are off.
He said once the lights of a BRT bus are switched off, it means that the bus is no longer in service and that the driver is expected to take the bus to the park to close for the day.
“Any bus that has its inner lights on at night is certainly still on service. Once the lights are off and the radar in the bus is not displaying, people should desist from boarding such a bus, because it is no longer in service at that period,” he added.
“By that time, the checker and conductor would have been out of the bus, except the driver who is expected to take the empty bus back to their yards.”