By OLASUNKANMI AKONI & MONSUR OLOWOOPEJO

IKEJA—Lagos State Government has condemned the armed robbery  attack on the editor of The Sun newspaper, Mr. Steve Nwosu, describing it as barbaric.

Meantime, residents of Makoko community in the Yaba Local Council Development Area, yesterday, shunned the meeting called by the government to dialogue over the ongoing demolition of shanties in the  Makoko waterfront.

Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Aderemi Ibirogba, lamented that journalists whose work were  expected to be appreciated by all were now the subject of attack in the country.

He said: “Journalists should be the least prone to attack in this country. This is because they are recognised as the protectors of the masses.”

While assuring residents of thorough investigation into the matter, Ibirogba reiterated government’s determination to protect life and property of all citizens irrespective of class, religion or ethnicity. On the meeting with Makoko residents, he said they shunned the meeting which was slated for 4 p.m. at the state secretariat, Ministry of Waterfront and Infrastructure.

It would be recalled that the meeting was sequel to the protest staged by the residents on Monday urging the state government to halt the ongoing demolition exercise.

The state government delegation was led by the commissioner for Waterfront and Infrastructure development, Mr. Adesegun Oniru. Others on the state government delegation were, Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello, Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban development, Mr. Toyin Ayinde and the Commissioner for Information and strategy who spoke on behalf of the state government delegation.

According to him, “we sent letters to all the Baales in the eight communities, informing them that the meeting will commence by 2:00 pm. At 2:00 pm, we called them, they said that we should reschedule the meeting for 4:00 pm which we did. After waiting for another three hours and they failed to show up for the meeting.”

Ibirogba however urged the all the elders of the community to show up for the next meeting that is re-scheduled  for Tuesday, August 1st, at the same venue.

Reacting on behalf of the residents, Baale of Sogunro-Pedro, Chief Abraham Metsu confirmed that they received the letter but it came late, adding “the letter came at 12:00 pm today (yesterday).”

“The letter for all the communities was delivered to my office and immediately I got the letter, I called all the Chiefs, they complained that the notice was too short for them to attend.”

According to him, “we received the call of the state government on Wednesday that we should attend the meeting but we said that they have to issue an official letter to that effect which they did,” he said.