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| Oba Akiolu Of Lagos |
On 6th April 2015, the Oba of Lagos,
Retired AIG Rilwan Akiolu openly threatened the Igbo Sons and Daughters living
in Lagos with instant and mysterious death and other unsafe conditions should
they freely exercise their voting rights in the country-wide gubernatorial and
State legislative polls scheduled for 11th April 2015 particularly
the Lagos State governorship poll. The Oba of Lagos had on Sunday 5th
April 2015 summoned all Lagos State recognized Igbo traditional council
representatives to his palace and ordered them to vote for the APC governorship
candidate, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode or face extreme hard times in the State
including perishing in the Lagoon, business hostility and instant and
mysterious death within seven days. Hours after the referenced threats and
unguarded utterances were made, the media was flooded with the shocking news
leading to attempted denial by the Oba’s Palace. The denial met a waterloo when
audio recording of the devilish sayings was released to the media. The
leadership of International Society for
Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law has also listened to the audio and
confirmed the Oba’s stone-age conduct and utterances.
The Oba threatened as follows: ''On Saturday, if anyone of you
(Igbo resident) goes against Akinwunmi Ambode, who I picked, that is your end.
If it does not happen within seven days, just know that I am a bastard and it
is not my father who gave birth to me. By the grace of God, I am the owner of
Lagos for the time being. This is an undivided chair. The palace belongs to the
dead and those coming in the future. On Saturday, if anyone of you, I swear in
the name of God, Allah goes against my wish that Ambode will be the next
governor of Lagos State, the person is going to die inside this water (Lagoon).
For the Igbo and others in Lagos, they should go where the Oba of Lagos heads
to.
When they were coming to the State, they did
not come with all their houses. But now, they have properties in the State. So
they must do my bidding. And that is the bidding of the ancestors of Lagos and
God. I am not ready to beg you. Nobody knew how I picked Ambode. Jimi (Agbaje)
is my blood relation and I told him that he could never be governor in Lagos
for now. The future belongs to God. I am not begging anybody, but what you
people cannot do in Onitsha, Aba or anywhere you cannot do it here''.
Oba
Akiolu & His Obaship As Stranger
& Tenant In Lagos State:
It is a historical reality that Oba Rilwan Akiolu
does not know the history of his lineage and Obaship in Lagos State. It is also
a truism that everything about the Obaship of Lagos State is the handiwork of
strangers. In other words, his stool originated from strangers; likewise
himself, who is number one stranger in Lagos State. As a matter of fact,
everything about Lagos State came from strangers including the Igbo natives. It
is historically indisputable that the ancestors of Igbo natives living in Lagos
State had lived and cohabited in the area many years before the founding of the
Obaship of Lagos in 1630. They featured prominently in the governance of the
Benin Kingdom and slave trade. Others later featured in commerce and
Anglo-Christian missions.
As a matter of historical empiricism, the word “Lagos” is a Portuguese name meaning
lakes or a group of lagoons. It was given to the area by first Portuguese
settlers in now Lagos State. Before the Portuguese settlement, the area was
called “Eko” by famous Benin Empire and made a military outpost of the famous
Kingdom of Benin. “Eko” means war camp and was used by the Benin Empire’s
military expedition tacticians led by Prince Ado for the purpose of slave trade
and military expeditions in now Ghana and Benin Republic. The famous Benin
Dynasty was divided into Pre-Imperial Obaship 1180-1440 and Benin
Empire 1440-1897. While the former started with Oba Eweka Monarchy
1180-1246, the latter started with Oba Ewuare Monarchy 1440-1473.
In the case of now Lagos State, the first people
in the area were called the Awori People. In seventeenth
century, they begged then Oba of Benin to protect and put them under his
dynasty with one of his princes as their king. They promised unalloyed loyalty
to the Oba. The Oba of Benin heeded their call and appointed his fiery prince;
Prince Ado in 1630 as the first Oba of Lagos then called “Eko” or war camp. In 1861, King Dosumu the Great of this same
Lagos State thump-printed and ceded now Nigeria to the British colonialists in
the infamous Treaty of Cession. From the crowning of Ado as its first Oba
(1630-1669), Lagos (then called Eko) served as a major center for slave-trade, from
which then Oba of Benin and all of his successors for over four centuries
benefitted - until 1841, when Oba Akitoye ascended to the throne of Lagos and
tried to ban slave-trading.
Local merchants strongly opposed the intended
move, and deposed and exiled the king, and installed Akitoye's brother Kosoko
as Oba. At exile in Europe, Akitoye met with British authorities, who had
banned slave-trading in 1807, and who therefore decided to support the deposed
Oba to regain his throne. With the success of the British intervention, in 1851
Akitoye was reinstalled as Oba of Lagos.
In practical terms, however, British influence
over the kingdom had become absolute, and ten years later, in 1861, Lagos was
formally annexed as a British colony. The palace of the Oba of Lagos is also
the handiwork of strangers. The palace was constructed by the Portuguese
settlers and commissioned in 1705. The palace’s name “Igun Idunganran” is of
the Benin descent meaning “palace built on pepper falm”. Interestingly,
long before the founding of Obaship of now Lagos by the famous Kingdom of Benin
in 1630, Igbo Nation has existed as far back as 9th century with its
first Eze Nri crowned around 1043 AD. Its first king was Eze Nri Ifikuanim of
Nri Kingdom. As far back as 14th century, the Igbo expedition
warriors had fully integrated into the Benin Kingdom as the ruling class.
It is very important to state here that the Benin
Kingdom’s decision makers that annexed now Lagos and ruled over it included
Igbo ruling class of the Benin Kingdom extraction. Also many centuries before
the founding of now Lagos, a part of Igbo ruling class in the Kingdom or Empire
of Benin opted out and founded “Onicha Mmili” or “AdoN’ Idu”
commonly called “Onitsha”. Onitsha
was founded by the Chima Dynasty in around 1500s AD. Today, there are Barbadian
Igbos, American Igbos, Saint Dominican Igbos, Maryland Igbos, Liberian Igbos
and Igbos of Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Cuba, to mention but a few. One of
the famous Igbo anti slave warriors is called “Bussa” of Barbados. There are
also Edward Blyden, an Igbo Americo-Liberian educator, writer and politician;
Paul Robeson, American actor and writer, with Igbo parenthood.
Contrary to Oba Rilwan Akiolu’s claims and boast,
he does not own Lagos and its people including its elected public office
holders. Rather, he is owned by the people of Lagos State including the Igbos
living in the State. As a matter of fact, Oba Akiolu Rilwan is the number one
stranger in Lagos State. This is more so when the legality and legitimacy of
his stool which he ascended in 2003 is still a subject of litigation before a
Lagos State High Court at Igbosere. The Oba’s intolerance to due process, rule
of law and democratic principles clearly manifested in the referenced court
case filed since 2003; whereby he reportedly bottled the case and kept
frustrating its hearing and determination for the past eleven years. The case
was only opened for hearing in 2014 eleven years after it was filed.
We are therefore not surprised at the despicable
and shocking royal disposition of Oba Akiolu. He has only said what has been
hatched and being executed against the Igbo Natives and Nation by his likes in
the Southwest and other hostile parts of the country. As the serving Assistant
Inspector General of Police, before his unceremonious retirement in 2002 with
referenced beastly Igbo hatred and xenophobia, only God knows how many innocent
Igbo citizens that might have been felled by his bullet extra-judicially. It is
possible that the voices and spirits of the murdered are on a revenge mission.
We join other well meaning Nigerians in
condemning the Yorean conducts of the stranger Oba of Lagos and urge Igbos
living in the State and all over the Southwest not to be perturbed and
intimidated. The stranger Oba’s curse is thunderously back to sender and spineless.
We dare say that the votes of the Igbo natives are priceless and beyond what
money or threats or intimidation can buy or procure.
The Igbos votes are their amulets and bullet
proof vests against their oppressors and witch-hunters. We dare say and direct
that on
Saturday, Igbos of Lagos and other Southwest residency should troop out
en-masse and vote for the gubernatorial and State legislative candidates of
their choice and conscience and nothing will happen.
We wish to roundly and resoundingly commend the
citizens who exposed this 21st century cannibalistic and barbarous
royal conduct of the stranger Oba. The ball is now in the
court of the security agencies in Nigeria as well as the National Human Rights
Commission and other local and foreign rights bodies and missions. The conduct of
the Oba under reference is big a slap on the faces of the Nigeria Police Force
where he served as AIG; the Nigerian Bar Association, where he is a member; the
University of Lagos, where he graduated as a lawyer and the Lagos and the
Southwest Traditional Rulers Council where he is a leading member. Oba Rilwan
Akiolu is a huge disappointment to Nigerian Traditional Rulers institution and
a quick reminder of cannibalistic conducts of the Saladin of Egypt who ate
human fresh during Christian crusades against Muslims in 12th and 13th
centuries. The Oba’s raw partisanship instead of the opposite is also shocking
and deafening. It is our call that he
should be dethroned and made to surrender his staff and certificate of office.
He should be arrested, investigated and tried for hate speech and threatened
group violence against innocent citizens living in Lagos State of Nigeria.
Signed:
Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman
International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law
+2348174090052
Barr Chiugo Onwuatuegwu, Head, Democracy & Good Governance Program
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