Tobias Sylvester
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Saturday disclosed that over 5,000 jobs have been lost in Lagos as a result of the recent xenophobic reprisal attacks in Lagos.
Angered by the recent wave of xenophobic attacks on Nigerians living and doing business in South Africa by the citizens of that country, some Nigerian youths on Tuesday and Wednesday, launched an offensive on businesses suspected to be owned and operated by South Africans in Lagos, leading to the closure of the premises of such businesses, including MTN and Shoprite.
Governor Sanwo-Olu, who visited some of the shopping malls that were attacked in Ajah and Surulere, described the incidents as “enormous”.
He assured business owners of safety and ordered security personnel to step up protection of all facilities so as to prevent them from further attacks.
Sanwo-Olu noted that although this xenophobic act took place in South Africa, Nigerians were the ones feeling the hardship and should move to stop such occurrence, while stating that thousands of workers from these businesses had suffered losses as a result of these attacks.
“These are jobs where Nigerians are the ones that have been affected. So, we need to be able to take the lessons out of this, be stronger together and be able to take corrective measures to ensure that things like these should certainly not repeat itself in our community,” the governor said.
“We have seen the amount of enormous destruction in both plazas and the first thing is to condemn in strong terms, whatever could have led to this, it is an extensive destruction of people’s property.
“As a government we have come out to condemn this and to assure business community that ease of doing business is paramount to us and security of lives and property is part of the to-do list for us.
“We are charging our security operatives to stop at nothing, to ensure that they keep all of these facilities safe and secure.”
“In both malls, over 5,000 people are out of jobs. These are jobs where Nigerians are the ones that have been affected. So we need to be able to take the lessons out of this, be stronger together and be able to take corrective measures to ensure that things like these should certainly not repeat itself in our community,” he said.
