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NEWS
Sanctity of Truth
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Qualities my successor must possess, by Fashola SUCCESSION Governor Fashola says his successor must achieve in four years what he will do in eight years
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ixteen months to his exit from the Lagos Government House, Governor Babatunde Fashola, yesterday, revealed why he was interested in the process that will lead to the emergence of his successor. Fashola said when he leaves office on May 29, 2015, his successor must be far better than him in performance. Fashola also declared that his greatest interest in the 2015 general elections is who becomes the next governor of Lagos State, saying it is when the person performs better than his administration that he can proudly claim to have had his own governor. Speaking at an interactive session with Lagos State Governor’s Office Correspondents at his official residence in Marina, Fashola said he would be happier and proud to have a successor who would take four years to achieve the giant strides his ad-
ministration would have recorded in eight years. He added that governance in Lagos State had been institutionalised over the years, saying it would only become easier for every successor to improve upon his successor. His words: “We are fortunate. Over the years, the government of Lagos is becoming more institutionalised. Therefore, it will become easier for every successor to improve upon his successor. I am not worried but I’m concerned because I will be involved. I have said to those who ask me. The honest true is that I hope first that the next person is a lot better than me. He reiterated that whoever must emerge as the next governor must be able to prove and demonstrate that his eight years’ achievement is a child’s play, given the overwhelming performance of that person. He also said the person must also be that personality would be ready to best protect and advance a course in the overall interest of Lagosians. Fashola added: “I hope that person can do, in four years, what it has taken
us eight years to do. That can only be beneficial to all of us. Because it is by that time I will then have my governor because right now, I don’t have a governor. I’m everybody’s governor. I can claim to have my own governor when the person is a lot better than me. That is what all
of us can see. Somebody who can do this thing in a shorter time and make all of what we have done look like child’s play. Fashola, who also reiterated that he would not want to be best governor in the state, said the idea of best governor is a futuristic idea but emphasised
that the new governor should be better than his successor. This, according to him, is the best and the only way the state can move forward. “That is why I said I don’t want to be the best governor of Lagos. The best governor of Lagos is
a futuristic idea. Any new governor of Lagos should be better than the last one. That is the only way we can have a better Lagos. My interest in the next election is Lagos who will best protect and advance the course that will interest Lagos State,” Fashola added.
Some of the recently sacked workers of Cocoa Research Institute (CRIN), Ibadan on peaceful protest …yesterday
1.166m The total tea production of China (the world’s highest). Source: Telegraph.co.uk.com
22.2% The working percentage of the West Bank and Gaza (the world’s lowest). Source: Telegraph.co.uk.com
41.3% The rate at which Foreign Direct Investment from the European Union into China’s economy fell in January 2014. Source: Reuters
Adebolajo gets life jail for Lee Rigby’s murder
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ichael Adebolajo was sentenced to die behind bars on Wednesday for the “barbaric” murder of Lee Rigby, a soldier mutilated in a London street. Adebolajo was given a whole-life tariff while his accomplice, Michael Adebowale, was sentenced to life in prison with a 45year minimum term. The pair were not in court at the Old Bailey in central London as they were sentenced after being removed from the dock shortly beforehand after shouting protests at the remarks of the judge, Mr Justice Sweeney. They were pinned to the ground by security guards before being removed to the cells. A jury had found them guilty in December 2013. On Wednesday before the killers’ removal, as
the judge told them they had been radicalised after converting to Islam, Adebowale had shouted: “Lies.” During the altercation with guards Adebolajo shouted: “Allahu Akbar”. Sobs could be heard from the Rigby family. The judge had delayed sentencing until a court of appeal ruling clarified whether those convicted of the most serious murders could receive sentences meaning that they would never be released. That ruling came earlier this month and paved the way for the two men who butchered Rigby in an attack in which he was almost decapitated to be face life imprisonment with no parole or prospect of ever being freed, though on Wednesday only Adebolajo was given a whole life term.
Earlier on Wednesday, the court were read victim impact statements from Rigby’s family, telling of their pain and grief. His wife, Rebecca, mother of their son, Jack, who was two at the time of the killing, said it had catapulted her into the “public gaze” leaving her feeling so distraught she felt she “did not want to go on”. She said: “Of all the feelings I have, the one thing that overrides everything is that I know my son will grow up and see images of his dad that no son should ever have to endure, and there is nothing I can do to change this.” The savagery of the murder in May 2013, in which Rigby, 25, was repeatedly stabbed and hacked in the neck with a cleaver, had a deep effect on community relations. It was the first murder-
ous attack in Britain by those motivated by the al-Qaida ideology of violence since the July 7, 2005 bombings of London’s transport system by four suicide bombers. The pair were the first al-Qaida-inspired terrorists to carry out their plan to murder on British soil without killing themselves in the process to come before an English court for sentencing. Adebolajo, 29, the dominant one of the pair of converts to Islam, and Adebowale, 22, had been convicted after one of the most overwhelming cases of guilt in English criminal history, with key parts of the attack caught on CCTV and smartphones. They had waited for a victim as they turned British soldiers into prey, stalking them near Woolwich barracks in south
London. At the time of the attack, Rigby was attached to the regimental recruiting team and was on his way back to barracks in Woolwich from a shift working at the Tower of London. Previously he had served a tour of duty in Helmand, Afghanistan, fighting Islamist militants. After running Rigby down with a car and pulling his body into the road, mutilating him so badly that he had to be identified by dental records, they remained at the scene and encouraged people to take pictures with their mobile phone cameras. They claimed they were soldiers of Allah and driven to conduct a strike against the West because of their disgust at its foreign policy.
Adebolajo, assessed by a psychiatrist as sane, was recorded at the scene brandishing a cleaver and a knife in his bloodied hands, and with the body of Rigby lying metres away, saying: “We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day. This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” In a police interview, he said he had picked Rigby because he was the first soldier they saw. The fusilier was stabbed with weapons including knives bought from Argos the day before. He claimed he slashed his neck because it was the most humane way to kill someone and added: “So I struck at the neck and attempted to remove the head.”