The Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) this afternoon raised the alarm over the alleged inordinate use of soldiers to cause mayhem and outright brigandage in the state. It fingered the Minister of State for Defence, Musliu Obanikoro, as the arrowhead of this illegal use of soldiers to cause a breach of public peace and launch mayhem in Lagos.

Lagos APC in a statement signed by the Interim Publicity Secretary, Joe Igbokwe, said that “the latest employment of soldiers to disrupt a state mass housing project in Lagos Island, coming barely a week after such similar perpetration of illegality in Ilubirin is signaling the launching of a state of terror by the PDP federal government using Obanikoro as the arrowhead.” It warned that “Lagosians would be forced to resist such illegality and stop the bizarre development by all legal means at their disposal.”

Said Igbokwe in the statement: “It is now certain that Obanikoro was made a Minister of state for defence for the sole purpose of deploying illegal military force to cause total mayhem in Lagos. It is certain that the PDP is bent on disrupting the pace of development in Lagos in the face of its shameful failure in the last fifteen years. It is certain that PDP and its agents want to arrest the progress and development of Lagos by all means as such reifies its own colossal failure in government for fifteen awful years.

“For us, stopping mass housing schemes on sudden and spurious claims of ownership of some parts of Lagos is wicked. It is inhuman; it is sadistic and speaks of the character of PDP as a party. We are sure that Obanikoro and those he is working for do not bank of using such means to win Lagos but to disrupt as much as possible the acclaimed progress of Lagos, which has been sustaining millions of Nigerians and accounting for the biggest chunk of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

“We see the stupid war Obanikoro is wedging on Lagos as just an expression of his political failure in Lagos. He is allowing himself to be used to impede the progress of Lagos as a way of showing his angst against Lagosians for continuously rejecting him in all the elections he has entered into since he joined the retrogressive forces. We urge Lagosians to take notice of what Obanikoro is doing in Lagos today and ensure that he is not allowed to but a wedge on the progress and interests of Lagos. We urge Lagosians to stand up and resist this noxious employment of outlawry to run a parallel government in Lagos.

“Lagos APC is calling on the military high command to arrest this dangerous trend of using soldiers illegally to cause mayhem in Lagos. We warn that the military risks being negatively branded if it allows the military to be dragged into prosecuting the selfish political interests of Obanikoro. We call on the military to urgently address this illegal use of soldiers to perpetrate illegalities by the so called minister before it plunges Lagos into anarchy and bloodletting. We warn Obanikoro and whichever dark interests he serves that enough is enough!”

•Photo shows Obanikoro.