Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to the president on information and strategy, has openly called for a shoot-on-sight approach against those vandalising public infrastructure.
Onanuga made the remark on Sunday in a post on X while reacting to a viral video showing severe damage to an ongoing federal road project.
“Just shoot these unconscionable vandals/thieves at sight. They are the worst species of citizenships,” he wrote.
The video showed men in reflective jackets bearing the crest of the Federal Ministry of Works, detailing how vandals invaded the reconstruction site of the Ibadan–Ilesa/Ife federal highway and carted away critical construction materials.
According to an official captured in the footage, the vandals cut and removed starter bars, also known as shoulder rods, taking those within reach and forcefully cutting out others, even with security patrols present.
“So what happens is that, we have some people vandalising these starter bars. You can see that they are pressing in some places but all these vandals, they cut out of it, they remove the ones they could remove,” he said.
“They cut the ones that are very solid and remove the ones they can remove entirely. These are starter bars. This is a very bad thing they are doing. These are vandals and we have security patrols.”
The Ibadan–Ilesa/Ife highway is one of the key federal road projects currently under reconstruction, with the incident once again highlighting the growing challenge of infrastructure vandalism across the country.
