 On the breakfast, the issue of police brutality continues as Nigerians on social media condemn the mother of a female lawyer, Bolan Leirahim, in Adjah, Iraw Lagos on Christmas Day. Also on the breakfast, the Federal Executive Council, FEC, has approved the sum of 95.9 billion Naira for the maintenance of simple hydrocarbon imparted sites in Ogonilan. And don't forget who would also be looking through today's newspapers analyzing the biggest stories of the day. Welcome to the Breakfast in Plos TV, Africa. It's a beautiful Tuesday morning. I am Emessia Boko and of course we're reaching your live from our studios right here in Victoria Island Lagos. The holidays are over already or not depending on who's asking and who's involved right. I know that to some persons, yes, the holidays are over but to others the holidays continue because, you know, it varies where you are. But however, I hope you had yourself a great time and you were able to unbox all of the gifts yesterday. As always, we start our top trending conversation on the show on the breakfast. But just before then, my name is Emessia Boko. Let's get straight to it. Very interesting conversation and that has gotten a lot of, you know, legosians, Nigerians across board reacting on social media on Twitter to be precise. Well, the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency had on Saturday shut down a popular nightclub right here, you know, on Victoria Island. That's Kulaks on a Zumba and Badiway Street for organizing an event without sound control permits. Now the enforcement exercise was jointly carried out by the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Unit, Offence Unit, I beg your pardon, which took place around 4pm on Saturday. The general manager of the agency disclosed that the agency received several distress calls with video evidence from consent neighbors on the alleged environmental nuisance constituted by the club. I like to quote what she said. She said, to avert situations like this, we recently held a stakeholders' parley with owners and chief executive officers of nightclubs in the state to address the issue of noise pollution during festive period. And I said the state in its magnanimity, compassionately increased the decimals to accommodate leisure, hospitality, business interests. Now, Kulaks, you need to know that it's owned by a federal lawmaker, Sina Pella, right? So let's even get to the conversation and the argument of Spain. And a lot of people think that this is politically motivated. And some people say, oh, really? Did we wake up? Did the agency just wake up to realize that there's noise pollution in Lagos? And what do we mean by controlled permit? But we'll get to that point. To be very honest, when we talk about noise pollution, it's very apt. I remember once upon a time when Donald Duke was governor of Cross River State, it was a big deal for you to pollute the environment with noise. So there were laws where your megaphones and what have you will be confiscated, especially religious organization. But this has gotten a lot of Nigerians reacting differently and I'm sure you don't want to read the comments. If you haven't seen that already, it would be great for you to go on Twitter when you use the hashtag Kulaks or Sina Pella. You would see all of the comments right there trickling down. Very hilarious, but some of them you need to consider. Now, one of the questions a lot of persons have been asking is, Kulaks has existed for a long time. So this is not the first time. I mean, how come we're talking about controlled permits now? We also remember that there was an incident in 2019 where they were also shot down. There were a little bit of skirmishes around the clock. So some people think that it's politically motivated and they've also queried whether Sina Pella still belongs to the APC and if it's not, that probably might be the reason for all of this. And all this is saying if we're talking about noise pollution, it's not just limited to the clock. But let's even look at Lagos entirely. Some persons have recommended that Lagos should be shut down because noise is Lagos and Lagos is noise, pollution, if you say. So from the religious organization such as the churches, the mocks and what have you, you know what I'm talking about. To the common man, I mean, to even the bus stops, to the markets, you have megaphones and all that. Everyone's just noisy. And people are asking how come we're very big on the clubs if we're talking about noise pollution? How far have we fed with ensuring that we control all of this? Why do we still have the mocks? Why do we still have the churches constituting a nuisance to the people? Because you find that most times these churches are situated where you have, I mean, they're in residential areas and their megaphones are out or the, you know, the mocks as it were, very loud, very obvious. And so whenever the prayers are going on, the people can't sleep. But at different hours, most times you have some of this religious institution who start their prayers quite early and you know how it can be. Waking up in the morning trying to get to work and maybe most times you have to get out early. Noise pollution is a very serious issue. But I don't think that we have been very sincere enough, I mean we have been sincere as a people, you know, as a government not to even talk about the state as a government to control noise pollution. So yes, I think that that's why a lot of people think that this is politically motivated. There might just be an undertone where you have the government always trying to oppose the opposition or maybe that probably might just be an interest. And when we talk about the sound control permit, what does it mean? Does it mean that there's going to be like some bulletproof or, I beg your pardon not bulletproof, soundproof that would filter the noise or the sound getting to the people. Do this organization, institution have some soundproof that would protect the environment, the immediate environment from being polluted by, you know, whatever sound might be produced at the time. So this is some of the conversation but like I rightly stated, I don't think that we have been very honest with the issue of pollution of our environment, especially when it comes to, you know, noise pollution and in Lagos state there's a lot of work to be done. We just hope that this would not just be a one side, you know, activity. Now another issue that might also interest you is the fact that if you look at some of these, I don't know if you call them institutional because they are not, but if you look at some of these businesses that are situated in residential areas, it calls for a lot of worry, right? How did they even get the permits? So if you have a residential area, is it rational for you to have a club in a residential area? Think about it. Who gives the approval for it? I'm not sure that they woke up and they existed. It's not like, you know, it was just a magic one that was thrown out and then you had a club there, right? Someone gave an approval, there's a process and procedure to all of that. And that's what we're saying. Are we really a mega city? It's another question to ask. What happens to the filling station? Now, apart from, you know, the pollution, environmental pollution that we have, noise pollution if you want to say, what happens to the filling station? That's also another one that's of interest. Okay? It's a disaster. So most times you have filling stations, especially at this period where there's scarcity of the product, and then you have a lot of people who would have to queue. It's also the same thing with the clubs because when you have people trickle into the club or people, you know, going to the club, there's going to be a queue and what have you. So who's giving the approval for all of these businesses to be instituted where you have people leaving? We call them residential areas. Residential areas should be residential, not commercial. So, but it's unfortunate that in residential areas, especially in Lagos, it's a mixed multitude. So you have businesses, especially with high ricks, that we don't even think about, all of that together in one space. What are we doing? We move away from that quickly. There's also another that's of interest is an APC lawmaker who's facing or who will face a legal crisis for threatening kind of voters. A lawmaker of the all-progressive Congress, Al-Hasan, has been sued for threatening to unleash violence on people opposed to the ruling APC at the 2023 January elections. Now, let's not forget that we're counting down to the elections. Well, the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court on December 20th said that Mr. Al-Hasan made some threatening statement that was capable of causing threat. Fear and of course, use of force or threat in the minds of ordinary Nigerians. We're talking about the electorate there. Let's even look at the quick, you know, just take a look at the tweets or the comment that was made. The comment was not made originally in English language, but it was being translated and this is what it means. On the day of election, will I? The person who, the person should vote for APC or you will be dealt with. The day of election, you either vote for the APC or you will be dealt with. When I say you should answer me, that's what the lawmaker was saying. Either you vote for APC or you should be dealt with. So it felt like he was addressing a group of peasants and he kept on saying, repeat after me, you know, you vote for APC or you be dealt with and all of that. But like I rightly mentioned, this wasn't in English language, but it was translated to English language and that's what it means. So the lawmaker threats originally made it in Hauser and was referenced in the criminal complaint. Well, the reason why this is happening and it's been in the quarters because there's a lot of consent for it. Citizens have noted that this threat in Steele-Fierre in them and other potential voters who might also be compelled to support or refrain from supporting any political party. But where are we really going to? It just tells a lot about our democracy. It tells a lot about what we're doing. And when we get to a point where we understand that election is not a do or die affair, it's just like the game, you know, the sports game football. It's a good thing that the Premier League is back. You just have to be ready to play the game and you play it in accordance with the rules. There are rules that should be respected. Just as football, politics also have rules or you want to say rules of engagement. And I remember vividly that every other time to the election there's always a peace pact that has been signed. Peace pact's always signed, but what happens with the peace pact? So it's a two-way thing. As much as we say that the electorate should behave in a certain way, but what happens to those who are vying for political offices or the elites? It's quite unfortunate that, you know, a lawmaker, a very prominent one at that, or, you know, an elite would be in that situation where they make such comments. It's very threatening. We're hoping that justice will be meted, that the law would take its course. It's not supposed to be so. Let's just, I mean, think about it. Whether or not it's going to be real, but just imagine what that statement would have done to a lot of peasants. It's totally unacceptable. And this all acts already contribute to truncating our democratic process. There's also another sad incident that has happened. It's the fire incident that happened in Edo where traders actually lost millions in a Poma, right? Fire incident. And like we have always mentioned, it feels like, if you observe, if you follow the trend, there's always fire incidents every other time, especially during the festivity. But like we say, fire service exists in different parts of the country. It's an agency. I mean, you have the fire service across the different, you know, parts of the country. That's the six states of the nation, including the F-City. There will be a fire service. But beyond saying that, you know, the reason they exist is to control, manage fire is that they all should also be involved in ensuring that the fire does not happen in the first instance or in the first place. That would mean that their duty involves educating the people sensitization. What practices and behaviors should people engage in? I mean, it's really saddening every other time you just look at fire incident. There was also another one that happened in Lagos as well. I saw that I think somewhere in K2, fire incident. It was really horrific if you look at the video because it's a live feed, you would see real fire burning. And for how long, you know, I'm not saying that we'll get to a climb where there's no fire incident at all, but I'm saying that is it possible for us to control fire incidents in our country? You know, during the festive period, is there a possibility of all of that, especially in the markets, because it feels like, you know, in the markets, we have no control over it. Boom, two seconds, there's also fire incident. But if it boils down to the agency of government that's been created for this purpose, apart from the fact that there exists, like I mentioned earlier on texting, to take out the fire or fight fire however it is, it's also important that they pay attention to other function and responsibility, which also the government has a hand to play, because in most cases, you hear them say, oh, we don't have enough, we don't have water, we don't have what it takes to take out the fire. But I think that if we're proactive enough as a people, as fire agency or, you know, firefighters, we would not even be experiencing the fire incident if we engage the people, educate them on practices and behavior to ensure that this does not, you know, happen in the first instance. But what about the case of arson? That's also another one. Very unfortunate, and we hope that as we get to 2023, as a country, we'll do better. And as a state, you know, everyone would do better. That's the much we can take on atop trending this morning. We take a break, and when we return, it'll be time for us to go through the front pages. We'll call it off the press. Please stay with us.