The police authorities have defended their demolition of Police Officers’ Wives Association Shopping Complex in the Computer Village, Ikeja area of Lagos.
The exercise which took place in the early hours of Sunday got traders using those shops lamenting alleging lost of monies and valuables.
Report said it contained about 300 shops with more than a thousand occupants.
Defending the action, the Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, in a statement said, “It has become imperative to properly establish that the complex, a property of the Nigeria Police Officers’ Wives Association, which is officially allocated to wives of police officers and their relatives, has been scheduled for demolition.
“This is to enable the Force to commence immediate construction of a modern shopping complex on the same land.”
Recall that the Lagos State Government has had earlier distanced itself from the planned demolition of a section at the Computer Village, Ikeja.
In a statement on Sunday by Commissioner for Information, Gbenga Omotoso, it noted that the structure was owned by the Police Officers Wives Association which ordered its demolition.
The statement was posted on the government’s official X account on Sunday.
It noted, “The Lagos State Government has nothing to do with the demolition at Computer Village in Ikeja. The structure is owned by the Police Officers Wives Association which ordered its demolition.’’
The Nigeria Police Force plans to demolish a commercial complex on the popular Computer Village.
The association stated that it would proceed with the demolition of the POWA complex in the axis..
Though some people had protested against the action, describing it as a target towards a certain ethnic group in the country, POWA had declared that the action would proceed despite the impacted dealers’ “frivolous claims, unsubstantiated protests, and media blackmail.”
However, the state government called on Nigerians to refrain from what it described as fake news purporting that it was behind the planned action.
It added, “Those circulating the fake news that the Lagos State Government is demolishing Computer Village are opportunistic ethnic chauvinists who will always relish in vacuous propaganda that can fuel their fiendish mission; they will always fail in dividing Lagosians.’’