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| Oba Akiolu of Lagos |
We wish to express shock and disbelieve over the
foregoing. We dare say that the defensive and apologetic positions taken by the
referenced over the issue are not unexpected. The most shocking of it all is
the official statement credited to the Inspector General of Police. By this the
IGP has aided and abetted, if it is true he made the statement as quoted. The
NPF boss was said to have made the statement in Abuja during the IGP Conference
with the State Commands’ Commissioners of Police. We wish to state that the
elementary law of criminal investigation does not provide for such hasty and
armchair conclusions without even a preliminary investigation. It may interest
the IGP to know that his seeming reliance on a watery and cooked up press
statement from the palace of the stranger-Oba was dealt a fatal blow by the
release of video and audio clips of the stranger-Oba’s coerced meeting with the
Lagos Igbo traditional representatives.
If it is true that the IGP made that statement;
then he is unfit to be the IGP of plural and multi ethnic society like Nigeria.
It also shows that he is the IGP of Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba ethnic
nationalities and seen as an enemy of Igbo Nation and Southern and Northern
ethno-religious minorities in Nigeria. Further grave implication of this is
that IGP and his NPF is encouraging pogrom and genocide through toleration and
condoning of hate and inciting speeches by malicious Nigerian citizens and
groups.
The international implication of this is that the
security agencies in Nigeria led by the NPF have clearly manifested unwillingness
and inability to arrest, investigate and prosecute promoters of hate
and genocidal speeches in the country; thereby warranting the immediate and
express intervention of the International Criminal Court. We therefore give the
IGP 48hours to clarify the statement credited to him as quoted and arrest and
investigate the referenced Oba Rilwan Akiolu. Failure to do this as demanded
will leave us with the option of dragging the stranger-Oba, the Government of
Lagos State and its APC as well as the IGP to the International Criminal Court
in Hague, The Netherlands.
As for the defensive and apologetic positions of
the individuals and groups above mentioned, we never expected the contrary just
like during the July 2013 Lagos Igbo Natives expulsion and deportation in the
same State. The inability of the referenced individuals and groups to make
categorical statements condemning the stranger-Oba’s genocidal threats and
calling for his dethronement, arrest and prosecution, is one of the tragedies
that have befallen individual and group advocacy entities in contemporary times
in Nigeria. The silence and inaction of the Government of Lagos State in the
referenced widely condemned utterances also makes it an accomplice. The first
action of a reasonable State Government over the referenced would have been to
sanction the errant Oba through at least suspension from office.
Another typical example is the coordinated and
collective silence of most of the rights organizations and activists in Lagos
State over the issue. If the genocidal threats were made by a leading
traditional ruler in the Southeast zone, by now heavens would have been let
loose in the Southwest rights CSOs community. Some would have gone to the UN Headquarters
in New York to picket and others would have opted for local and international
court actions like ICC, press conferences in Abuja and Lagos, etc.
As for proxy apologies offered by
Lagos APC and its owners, they are not only infantile, but also a cosmetic
approach padded for the purpose of averting the loss of the 11th
April gubernatorial poll in the State. From the body language of the
referenced, the stranger-Oba of Lagos was not alone in his genocidal remarks.
He only let out what has been collectively plotted and hatched. The truth is
that those who are laying false claims to the ownership of Lagos State
following local language assimilation, are the same groups and persons that
plotted and hatched what the stranger-Oba let out by error. Their grave bitterness
stems from the recent victory of some non-natives in the just held Federal Reps
poll in the State where about three seats went to them. Their shock and
surprises stemmed from the fact that despite plotted denial of over 2 million
registered voters dominated by non natives of their PVCs; the referenced still
got a number of seats and garnered much votes for the out-going President
Goodluck Jonathan.
Our position; to the effect that the referenced proxy
apologies are a smokescreen or cosmetic approach is further reinforced by the
text below forwarded to us yesterday
evening by a concerned citizen wishing not to be mentioned. The text has also
been seen on the social network account walls of some Southwest citizens. It is
being spread in Lagos State and environs using the Black Berry Smart Phones and
similar devices. The hate text below is as follows:
"Vote Ambode for Governor! Jim Agbaje is giving igbos power to dominate
us in our land. He has promised them 4 Local Government Chairmanship positions
and 3 Cabinet posts in his cabinet if the Igbos in
Lagos support him to win. Can you imagine 5
Igbos have won House of Rep(s) election in Lagos State (?). Jimi Agbaje says
when he wins, an Eze Ndigbo will (be) crowned and given the same status as Oba
of Lagos. YORUBA E RONU, WE DON'T WANT TO LOOSE (LOSE) LAGOS STATE TO THE
IGBOS, THE WAY WE LOST Ilorin, remember The Afonja story. The igbos claim that
Lagos is no man's land, let's prove them wrong by voting APC on Saturday. VOTE
Akinwunmi Ambode"
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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