The headquarters of the Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) Taskforce at the old gate on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was on Saturday demolished on the directive of the Lagos State Governor, Akinwumi Ambode.

Chairman of Lagos State Taskforce on Environmental and Special Offences, Hakeem Adedeji, a Superintendent of Police confirmed this to the newsmen, saying it was done in the public interest.

Adedeji said the abandonment of the building and its conversion to a hideout by miscreants must have informed the governor’s decision to pull it down.

“On getting here, we could not find any Federal Government official inside the building, rather, we found street urchins.

“There is need to avoid that and that is why we believe that if the building is demolished, no one will use it as a hideout,” he said.

The chairman noted that the structure ought to have been demolished since June 22, but that due process had to be followed before carrying out the demolition.

“All these are geared towards ensuring that the rights of the citizens are not infringed upon.”

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that earlier in the year, former Governor Babatunde Fashola wrote to former President Goodluck Jonathan over the presence of the officials, who claimed to have been set up by the Presidency, to publicly state their functions.

The debris and heaps of documents used by the agency were evacuated from the site. (NAN)

•Photo shows Lagos Governor Ambode.