Cajetan Mmuta, Awka
The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, has kicked against what it described as barefaced brutality, repression and existential threat being perpetrated against the Igbo population in Lagos State.

The body called on the President Muhammadu Buhari, the President-elect Bola Tinubu, the Inspector-General of Police, the Directorate of State Security (DSS), and the Governor of Lagos State, to wade into this ethnic profiling of the Igbo in Lagos State and the attendant hardships, which “our people have been subjected to with a view to averting this impending tragedy”.

It recalled that in the run-up to the February 25, presidential election, the Ndigbo in Lagos were subjected to inhuman treatments by the “so-called “owners” of Lagos for which reason many of our people were brazenly attacked, oppressed, repressed, and disenfranchised for no other reason than insisting on their civic rights to vote for candidates of their choice.”

The National Publicity Secretary, Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide, Dr. Chiedozie Alex Ogbonnia in a statement yesterday noted that a few days ago, the spokesperson for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, issued a “last warning “ threat to Igbos in Lagos State where he warned  them to stop “interfering” with politics in the state.

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“Onanuga added that “this year 2023 should be the last time they should interfere in Lagos politics, stating that “the state belongs to Yorubas” and “let there be no repeat in 2027” and that the “Igbo are not Lagosians, but mere strangers from another ethnic group “.

Ohanaeze maintained that, Onanuga said “Igbo are merely tolerated in Lagos”.

“Without remorse, Onanuga insisted: “I owe no one any apology for addressing the existential threats of my Yoruba stock”; insisting that “I am after all, first of all a Yoruba, before being a Nigerian”.

The apex Igbo body recalled further that, “during the 2015 general election, one of the most influential traditional rulers in Nigeria, the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, was quoted as threatening the Igbo in Lagos: “Anyone that fails to vote for the governorship candidate of the APC would perish in the lagoon.”

“In the build-up to the 2023 general election, the Baale of Igbara community, Jakande, in Eti-Osa LGA of Lagos State threatened that “We are ready to fight the Igbo, if they voted against the All Progressives Congress (APC)”

“In another development, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Lagos State, Segun Agbaje stated that the reason the Igbo in Lagos cannot have their PVC is that they are from the South-Eastern part of the country, inferring that they are immigrants; in what Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi criticised as a “conspiracy against democracy: INEC REC; Segun Agbaje’s outburst.

“In yet another development, a notorious Lagos thug, Musiliu ‘MC Oluomo’ Akinsanya, threatened that “Igbos who will not vote for the APC in the governorship election to stay at home”.

Ogbonnia said: “Consequently, in the aftermath of the presidential election held on February 25, 2023, Ndigbo in Lagos have had their shops vandalised and burnt down with the authorities in Lagos looking the other way. In the process, many Igbo have suffered physical and psychological harm, loss of property and death.”

He added: “Again, on March 19, 2023, many Igbo ethnicities that came out to exercise their franchise were attacked with dangerous weapons including AK-47 machine guns. While some of the Igbo sons and daughters were alleged to have died in the process, some others are in various hospitals in Lagos State.”

Ohanaeze said it “wants to know why in every election, Igbos in Lagos would be a target of attack by both the traditional institutions and government agencies while the federal government of Nigeria would complicitly  watch and sanctimoniously preach that the unity of Nigeria is indivisible and indissoluble.”

The group said: “It is once more pointed out that Lagos was the capital of Nigeria at the Nigerian Independence in 1960; just like Abuja is today the capital of Nigeria. It is of course highly inconceivable for a particular ethnic group to be excluded from the social, economic and political activities in the federal capital territory of any country or in any part of the country for that matter.”

“In other words, instead of commendations and plaudits for the invaluable contributions of the Igbo in Lagos State, some miscreants have taken barbarism to the extreme by killing and maiming the Igbo because they came out to vote in a democratic election.”

“Ohanaeze Ndigbo does not want to view the Yoruba ethnic through the narrow lens orchestrated by the illegits, miscreants, hoodlums and the jaundiced half Yoruba who have met culture and civilization halfway. “

“This is because, the Ohanaeze cannot forget the likes of Dr. Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, the Afenifere and indeed all those eminent Yoruba that stood on the side of justice, equity and history by supporting Mr. Peter Obi