I never received security votes as Lagos gov — Fashola

Former Lagos state governor, Babajide Fashola, has disclosed that he never received security votes throughout his eight-year tenure in charge of the South-western state.

Fashola, who served as a minister of Works, Power and Housing simultaneously under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari (now late), said this on Friday while speaking on a panel at a June 12 programme organised by The Platform Nigeria to mark Nigeria’s Democracy Day commemoration.

Responding to a question as a former governor, alongside former Senate President Bukola Saraki, on the impact of the money received by governors as security votes, especially amid rise in security challenges facing Nigeria, Fashola said the idea of security votes being paid directly to governor is laughable because he never received any money .

According to Fashola, all the monies accrued to Lagos State under his watch were domiciled in the Lagos State Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning.

“This security vote thing, whenever I hear some of my colleagues talk about it, I don’t know what it means because I never had it in Lagos,” Fashola said. 

“I speak for what I know. I was the governor, there was no security vote. All our acquisitions were domiciled in the Ministry of Budget and Planning. So, you were saying governors received something as security votes. I don’t know if Governor Saraki got that kind… I didn’t get it. And I don’t know from where they were getting it.

ALSO READ: EFCC arrests aviation security officer, two others at Kano airport

“But the point to make is that the constitution prescribes that we’re chief security officers of our states. And we can’t walk away from that. So, I proudly accepted that, I do. And I did what we could, with my team, to make this place safer. 

“And for those who lived here back in the time. We used to have a monthly security meeting. It held every first Wednesday of the month. In eight years, I never missed that meeting. 

“So, when General Musa was talking about transition and high crimes, I could connect with it because we took data every month. And we set up a security trust fund. People invested in it, the accounts were audited. The assets were audited and every year, we came to a town hall like this. Not just to come and talk to Lagosians about what we were doing with the resources but also to tell them about what we were doing in terms of crimes. Measuring data of specific crimes in the previous year to what has changed in the current year. And we started from a very poor base. And those we lived here would remember that if we have three successful armed robberies in one week, back then; it was a good week. Because it was almost every day. 

“So, it wasn’t also guns and policemen. We were the first state to embrace the cashless policy of the CBN regime at that time under Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.” 

According to him, crime is dynamic and the battle in Lagos State was not won by guns and Policemen but policies, noting that the cashless policy embraced by the state under his watch made it unattractive for anyone to go after homes.