Falana speaks on Lagos deportation

Legal icon, Femi Falana (SAN) has blamed the recent Lagos state deportation of the Igbos on the ruling class whom he described as contributing to the impoverishment of the destitute as of their selfishness, corruption and economic mismanagement.

He agrees that although Lagos was overburdened by an influx of economically displaced persons owing to the failure of leadership in other states, that the State government still had an obligation to aid and not deport them, as such deportation was unconstitutional.

He said Lagos, unlike most States, had innovated a system of generating vast internal revenue by “compelling the rich to pay taxes through their noses”.

While commending the Lagos government for contributions to the rehabilitation of area boys who once roamed free in Lagos, he said the government could do more by putting in place proper social security structures in order to rescue the destitute instead of further stigmatizing and victimizing them.

The legal luminary also cautioned that part of the billions devoted to building mega cities could also be earmarked towards funding existing rehabilitation programmes of Lagos state government.

He also chastised the Federal Government for complaining of lack of funds to establish a social security structure for Nigerians and yet bailing out subsidy fraud perpetrators to the tune of $16 billion.

we at GET IT RIGHT NIGERIANS believe that the issue of deportation is more political than economic. We all know that a lot of persons you find in Lagos have no business being in Lagos, and if given a chance would actually do better in their respective locality, to this extend we agree with Fashola sanitation policy.  It is however unheard of that deportation of illegal immigrants would take place withing a country bound by a legal constitution. there could have been some other ways of going about this, the government of Lagos state could have provided transit shelters as a process of rehabilitating them back to their homes. many of those deported have long lost touch with home and its only proper for Governor Fashola to have taken this into consideration. Governor Fashola should tender an apology to the igbos, for dumping those people at onitsha which we believe is not even the home town of all those deported in that exercise.