A Lagos-based lawyer, Mr Jide Ologun, has appealed to the Lagos State Government and the Inspector-General of Police (I-G) Usman Baba, to extend the time given to police officers to vacate their quarters for rebuilding.
The Lagos State Government and the Nigeria Police are collaborating to rebuild 25 barracks and facilities that have become dilapidated in the state.
The I-G had given orders to its officers and men living in dilapidated structures in Lagos to vacate their quarters after the recent collapse of a building at Sango Police Barracks, Ibadan, Oyo State.
The Force spokesperson, CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, on May 4 in Lagos, ordered officers and men living in barracks slated for rebuilding to vacate their quarters within the next 30 days, starting from May 1, to pave way for seamless demolition and redevelopment of the buildings .
The barracks affected in Lagos include Adekunle, Agege, Alausa, Area F, Bar-Beach, Bourdillon, Falomo, Federal Highway Patrol, MTX Highway and Ijeh Police Barracks.
Others are SQ MTX Ijora, SQ MTX Iponri, K-9 Police Barracks, Kam Salem, SQ MTX McCarthy, Mopol 2 Keffi, Mounted Troops, Obalende Barracks, Police Officers’ Mess Obalende and Women Barracks amongst others.
Applauding the government and the Police for the initiative, Ologun told NAN that officers and men in Ikeja Police Barracks were concerned about the possible disruption the order to vacate quarters in 30 days would have on their children’s schooling.
Ologun, who noted that he was one of the crusaders for renovations and rebuilding of Police barracks, however, said that the government must consider the children of the officers and men of the Police.
The lawyer urged the government and the I-GP to exercise some patience with their officers till the end of schools third term to move their families away for the work to start.
“The officers are not saying they do not want to vacate the barracks for developers to start work, rather for their children to be allowed to complete this ongoing third term academic session so as not to disrupt their children’s schooling.
“Majority of the officers cannot afford houses in and around Ikeja and their children are in schools. I don’t think government considered this before ordering them to evacuate the barrack.
“We want government to extend the time till the end of the third term academic calendar before ordering the evacuation.
“Will the officers now change the children’s schools at this time of the academic session? The academic session will soon be over in two months,” he said.
According to him, improving physical infrastructure in barracks remains a very good development and laudable.
“This is a very good development when we talk of escalating the infrastructural value of barracks and bringing it up to standard in terms of provision of world-class welfare for the officers. This project is beautiful and a long-awaited initiative.
“But then, one issue that should be considered is to extend the time as many of the officers have children who are in schools.
“We are making special appeal to government to wait a bit for these people to relocate so that it doesn’t affect the children that are in schools,” Ologun said.
