The joy in the hearts of commercial drivers, civil servants and policemen attached to the Lagos Environmental and Special Offence unit after news filtered in that the agency’s chairman and a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) Shola Jejeloye, has been taken to The Rapid Respond Squad (RRS) to further serve the state.
The jubilation spilled from the agency headquarters in Oshodi to Lagos metropolis especially among commercials bus drivers as the news of his replacement with CSP Adetayo Akerele spread across the state.
As gathered, the jubilant workers and law enforcement officer commended the State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and Commissioner for Police, Adegoke Fayoade, for removing from the agency.
Both the staff and ad-hoc work were elated on yesterday that Jejeloye, who had been linked previously with some cases of land grabbing across the state, has been removed.
But their joy was halted after they realised that Jejeloye, rather than hand over affairs of the agency, he held on to it and released impounded vehicles and commercial motorcycles popularly called Okada, even those that had been brought before the mobile court were alleged to have been released.
A staff, who didn’t want his name made public, told The Guild that: “We are happy that Jejeloye has been redeployed elsewhere”.
He noted that their joy was that he and his colleagues would not have to panic while working for the agency, saying our former boss is not approachable, a development that affects the team’s enforcement operations.
While wishing him well in his future endeavors, the staff alleged Jejeloye didn’t give room for his subordinates to approach him and divulge information or request for what they discover could assist them have better enforcement results rather, he takes decisions without seeking the workers input before embarking on major operations.
Another staff added: “You know w e cannot just be dancing publicly but I can tell you for a fact that everyone is celebrating his removal from the agency including his colleagues, policeman, deployed to the agency”.
She stated that after Jejeloye’s redeployment was made, he immediately released some vehicles that had been impounded traffic law in the state.
According to her, he hurriedly released some of the vehicles that were impounded for contravening the traffic law to their owners without accordance to the stipulations recommended by law.
The source noted that Jejeloye’s removal was God’s intervention on the agency, saying it was under his leadership that we start having Lagosians linking Taskforce to land grabbing and other Sundry issues that prevent effective enforcement of the law.
Jejeloye’s redeployment was confirmed through a statement released by the Director, Press and Public Affairs, Lagos State Taskforce, Abdulraheem Gbadeyan, who disclosed tha the former Taskforce boss has been redeployed to the Rapid Respond Squad (RRS) to replace CSP Saheed Egbeyemi, who has been removed from the office to continue serving the nation elsewhere as a policeman.
According to him, CSP Akerele, the new Chairman, who is a seasoned administrator and a super cop, was the former Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Lane Monitoring and Enforcement Commander, will be taking over leadership of the agency.