Raji Rasaki laughed so hard before responding: “Of course, I heard it and when I checked the dictionary. I discovered that there was nothing wrong in what I said since gadder and bridge mean the same thing, I am a telecommunications engineer, so I just laughed over it.”
Raji Rasaki who retired as a Brigadier General, was further asked why he ev!cted the people of Maroko, a popular community in Lagos at that time and later demol!shed the entire place.
He responded: Honestly I have no regrets for what we did at Maroko.That area I know very well; Victoria Island stopped at Adetokunbo Ademola area…Anyway, I had planned to begin some redevelopment in the area, but one of these days we went to Epe, and (Ibrahim) Babangida was in the vehicle. We were returning at about 8pm and we were att@cked by røbbers.
Before then, I had been getting terr!ble reports from the area and on two occasions, I have had to ensure that the Inspector-General removed the DPO of the area.
Anyway, we were returning from Epe, we passed the first wave of att@ck, and then there was this terr!ble one around the present Lekki Phase 1. We heard gvnshøts. I asked my Oga (Babangida) to continue, I jumped out of the vehicle and confrønted them. We pursued these people and they all ran into Maroko.
The next morning, I called the Baale, I ordered him to fish out those people; he began to give excuses. I kept quiet but later went to apologize to Babangida for the incident.
Before taking the Lagos appointment, I had asked Babangida that he must hold me responsible for any action I take. I am a very principled person, even my children know this, and when they complain, I tell them once a ‘soldier, always a soldier’. Anyway, I went to Babangida, I told him, ‘sir, this Maroko incident, I said I wanted to level the place’. He said: “Rasaki, you cannot do it.” I asked him: “Have you forgotten about our agreement?” He said, “No, don’t do it.”
At that period, I called Mr. Adeyemi, he was Permanent Secretary of Environment in Lagos State. He said he cannot do it and that Baba Jakande tried but he failed. I said, me, I am a soldier, I am trained to make the impossible possible.
Babangida was travelling outside around that period. I called my group; I had a team of officers that I trained at NDA. I went to signal, I went to Armoury. I told them by Monday morning, I don’t want to see Maroko standing.
Babangida was going for two weeks, so I gave the people one week notice. We went again on Friday and by Monday, we levelled the place. What we saw was shøcking, we saw shallow gr@ves, we saw fake hospitals, I wanted to prøsecute the Baale but for the plea of Oba Oyekan.
We moved some of the residents who had genuine papers to Abesan Estate. Whatever you say about it, you have to give it to Babangida. When the people like Oniru family, Dideolu Estate came with their claims, he said we should give the land to them. Look, we demolished houses owned by military officers too.
So that was how we did Maroko. I have no regrets at all. If we did not clear Maroko, the people in Victoria Island and Ikoyi would have had no rest. I did it with good conscience.
Another thing we did that made me happy was those beggars we cleared in Ebute Metta and sent them to Kano. I read the Quran very well; there is nowhere where you should be a beggar permanently. How come there are no beggars littering the streets of Saudi? I saw them as a nuisance dirtying the state, I was happy that Babangida did not react when I took that action.”
Raji Rasaki was governor of Lagos between July 1988 and December 1991. Before then, he served as governor of Ogun from 1986 to December 1987 and also served as governor of Ondo from 17 December 1987 – July 1988
Credit: Ethnic African Stories
