Thursday, 29th of October, 2020, Hon. Adedamola Richard Kasunmu engaged the youths, elders and political stalwarts of Lagos State Ikeja Constituency 2 in a Town Hall Meeting held at LTV 8 Multipurpose Hall, Ikeja, Lagos State.
At the town hall meeting, honourable Kasunmu gave account of his stewardship in the last one years reiterating on the activities and achievements of Lagos State House of Assembly as an institution.
Below are the blow by blow account of his achievement if the last one year.
The year 2020 has been a year like no other and it is a year that looks like many years rolled into one.
Just as we were smarting from Covid-19 pandemic wave that hit everyone like a thunderbolt, another disruption erupted like an earthquake. 2020 is a year that showed God reigns supreme in the affairs of men and that, there is power in unity when we come together as one, for a common purpose.
#ENDSARS PROTEST AND THE WAY FORWARD
Permit me to briefly talk about these recent events relating to the #ENDSARS protests.
Despite the undesirable ending of the protests which rocked our state and other parts of the country for 12 days, one major take-away from that historic agitation is that, there is great hope for our country Nigeria if the youth can sincerely come together and form a united, positive and patriotic front. But then we need tact, insight and more wisdom to achieve this.
Being a youth and a former Chairman, House Committee on Youth, Sports and Social Development, my support for #ENDSARS protest right from beginning was total and this was in conformity with the position of Lagos State House of Assembly which passed a timely resolution recommending the dissolution of SARS even before the Federal Government acted.
As a matter of fact, I personally made several placards with various inscriptions expressing support for the demands of the protests before things went awry.
It is indeed unfortunate that, such a peaceful and innovative and digital-driven protest was highjacked by the enemies of good things, who unleashed calculated terror on our state.
As we have all seen, the destruction was monumental and very tragic across Lagos state and
Ikeja Constituency 2 was also not spared.
Critical state infrastructure and public institutions were attacked and wilfully looted or burnt down.
In our constituency alone, the following places were violently attacked:
1. BRT Terminal at Berger where all the ultra-modern buses got burnt to ashes
2. Lagos State Public Works Corporation also at Berger was attacked and viciously looted
3. Federal Road Safety Corps office was burnt down with several vehicles
4. Vehicle Inspection Services (VIO) office was also attacked and burnt
5. Ojodu Police Division was set on fire, with several vehicles and adjoining businesses going up in flames
6. Ojodu Primary School was also tragically razed
7. Ojodu LCDA Secretariat was also attacked and vandalised.
This is just to mention a few.
It was indeed a sad occurrence in my constituency.
I want to seize this opportunity to commiserate with our dear Governor and the people of Lagos State, especially those in my constituency who lost dear ones or valuable properties to this incident.
My special condolences also go to the victims of the reported Lekki Toll Gate shooting and all our security agencies who lost their lives in the line of duty. May God comfort their families and restore these loses.
I firmly believe in the ability of our government to get to the root of this matter and ensure justice is perfectly served.
Fortunately, one of our brilliant youth in Ikeja Constituency 2, *Temitope Majek* is among the Judicial Panel of Inquiry recently inaugurated by the state government, I have no doubt that Majek and his colleagues will represent both the youth constituency and our political constituency very well at the panel.
Having said that, I want to quickly commend our community youth across the constituency who stood up strongly and defended our communities against external aggressors, even in the face of vicious violence. Big ups to you all.
I also appreciate the youth and elderly who came out in oneness last weekend to carry out clean-up exercises in major parts of the constituency shortly after the attacks. You did a great job and I am proud of you all. God bless you.
Lastly I want to appeal to my people, the youth. #ENDSARS has given us a formidable platform upon which we can build a better Nigeria, let us use it with tact.
We need to stand together and defeat Fake News.
Let us continue to shun violence in our communities and in our state. Let us continue to encourage one another and let us continue to support each other.
On my part, I count it as a privileged to be your legislator and representativeat the state level and so my doors are open to you all at any time.
*A Youth summit* where we will address most of our issues is in the pipeline.
Working with the state government and other stakeholders, we will endeavour to bring succour and solace to those who experienced loses during these attacks.
An assessment exercise to determine damage extent in Ikeja Constituency 2 has commenced already and when this is concluded it will determine the size of support to be put together.
Once again, I want to sincerely thank you all for coming and I also thank you for listening.
Together we shall make Ikeja Constituency 2 greater and Lagos will recover.
_*#LagosHeals*_
Hon. Adedamola Richard Kasunmu
Lagos state House of Assembly
Ikeja Constituency 2
