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Supporters of Lagos State gubernatorial candidates are courting and intimidating Igbo residents for crucial votes in the March 9 elections
By Emeka Ejere
The recent statement by Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo socio-cultural group, distancing itself from the endorsement of Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship flag-bearer in Lagos State by the state chapter of the group, may have heightened anxiety over the voting pattern of Igbo in Saturday, March 9 elections.
The Lagos chapter of Ohaneze led by Solomon Ogbonna had in what looked like yielding to pressure, announced it was backing Sanwo-Olu, in whose government it is, in turn, seeking six slots if he is elected.
But in a recorded video that went viral on Tuesday, March 5 John Nwodo, the president general of Ohanaeze, condemned the action of the Lagos State chapter, and told Igbo resident in Lagos that Ogbonna does not have the support of the national body in his action.
“What he (Mr Ogbonna) did in Ohaneze’s name did not have our backing. We never asked him to pick who the Igbos will vote for in Lagos. He did it a terrible thing, don’t listen to him, listen to your hearts,” Nwodo said in the video in which he spoke Igbo.
Deciding for the Igbo how to vote and who to vote for as a condition for allowing them to live in peace and do their legitimate businesses in Lagos seem to have become an every four-year interval ritual.
Reports had it that during the February 23 presidential and national assembly elections, Igbo were, allegedly disenfranchised in many parts of Lagos because they were perceived to be more sympathetic to Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, than Mohammadu Buhari of the APC.
It got even worse after the elections as hoodlums suspected to be enjoying the support of the powers-that-be in Lagos, attacked and vandalised their shops, in a move widely seen as a warning against a repeat of such in the governorship and state assembly polls.
Similar drama played out in 2015 when Rilwan Akiolu, the Oba of Lagos warned that any Igbo who failed to vote for Akinwunmi Ambode, the then governorship candidate of the APC, would perish in the lagoon.
Akiolu strongly warned that if they (Igbo) repeat what they did on March 28, 2015 when they voted for Goodluck Jonathan, the presidential candidate of the PDP then they should be ready to dance to the tune of his flute.
“On Saturday, if anyone of you, I swear in the name of God, goes against my wish that Ambode will be the next governor of Lagos State, the person is going to die inside this water,” the Oba had threatened.
“I’m not ready to beg you. Nobody knew how I picked Ambode. Jimi is my blood relation and I told him that he cannot 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, don’t do it here.
“If you do what I want, Lagos will continue to be prosperous for you. If you go against my wish, you will perish in the water.”
Like the Oba, the hoodlums, not satisfied with the way Igbo are perceived to have voted during the presidential and national assembly elections, are threatening fire in event of Igbo voting against the “Yoruba interest,” come March 9.
But unlike the Oba, they are not just talking. They are also assaulting the Igbo traders, even after shutting their shops and scattering their wares at different markets in Lagos.
For instance, on Monday, February 25, shops belonging to Igbo traders were allegedly forced shut by armed hoodlums said to be sympathetic to the APC at Oshodi Market.
Reports had it that the hoodlums invaded the market around 5am and destroyed some shops before the traders arrived to set up their wares. As if that was not enough, they returned around 7am to beat up some of the traders, who were assessing the damage done to their shops.
According to them, they had wooed the Igbo traders to vote for Buhari, but they refused and voted for the opposition, adding that the Igbo traders must vote whosoever they are asked to vote since they are gaining economically from the state.
Lagos Island got its share of the melodrama on Thursday, February 28. There the hoodlums were said to have also descended on Igbo traders, accusing them of not voting for their candidates.
According to report, the miscreants who were armed with dangerous weapons like cutlasses, broken bottles, jagged woods and knives, struck at about 9a.m. at Oluwole, Nnamdi Azikwe, Tinubu, Bamgbose and Alli streets.
While the lockdown was going on, the hoodlums were chanting ‘Igbo should go back to their states’, ‘leave Lagos alone’, ‘Go and do business in your states, this is Lagos.’
Realnews learnt that it took combined intervention of the Police and the Army to bring the situations under control. Similar incidents were also reported at Oyingbo Market, Ogba Market, Alaba Rago and other markets in the state with high Igbo presence.
Narrating his ordeal, one of the traders, who identified himself simply as Emeka, and whose shop was destroyed, said the hoodlums had no justification to attack the traders and their means of livelihood for exercising their civic right, adding that they were paying taxes to the Lagos State government.
He stated, “I arrived for the day’s business only to see my shed already destroyed. When I asked those who arrived before me, I was told that some people came armed with weapons to destroy our places of business. I also learnt that they beat up some traders when they came the second time.
“This action on the Igbo is condemnable, because we are the ones developing this state. Some of the shops built by the government are sold to us because we are willing to pay any amount to get shops where business thrives.
“We are calling on the state government to put security measures in place so that such a thing will not repeat itself. As a Nigerian, it is expected that everyone will be free to do business anywhere in the country without being intimidated or harassed by anybody, regardless of who they decide to vote for.”
Another trader, identified simply as Obinna, said he escaped the beating by the hoodlums by chance. Obinna said: “I was able to escape the hoodlums’ beating by luck, because when I saw some guys coming in a group with planks in their hands, I knew there was a problem and I just took to my heels. When I returned, some of the traders, who didn’t run far from the place, told me of what happened.
“Someone had earlier suggested that I should take some time before resuming business after the elections, but I thought democracy in 2019 should not involve violence. It is really bad that people cannot be allowed to exercise their right to vote in the acclaimed centre of excellence.”
Wooing the Igbos
Discerning minds find it difficult to believe that Igbo in Lagos are pro-PDP as alleged, giving their romance with the ruling APC in recent times.
For instance, on Sunday, December 16, last year, Igbo community in Lagos, under the aegis of “Ndigbo Friends of Sanwo-Olu in Lagos,” conferred on Sanwo-Olu, a chieftaincy title of “Ugo Chi Mere Eze,” meaning “its God that makes a king,” with heads of Igbo in the 57 council areas of Lagos State in attendance.
At the ceremony, which took place at the National Stadium, Surulere, Chris Nwachukwu, one of the leaders, said Igbo in Lagos had made up their mind to vote the APC in the 2019 general elections. He said: “We see a quality in APC and its governorship candidate and his deputy, Dr Obafemi Hamzat. Come 2019, we will vote enmasse for Sanwo-Olu, because with these two gentleman, Igbos’ interests will be protected.”
Sanwo-Olu does not only appear in Igbo outfit in one of his posters, he also occasionally dresses like an Igbo man at public events, suggesting, to many, a friendship with the Igbo.
Jimi Agbaje, his PDP counterpart, on the contrary, has not done any of these, observers say.
‘The Yoruba interest’
It is also hard to establish what the hoodlums meant by Yoruba interest which, they said, Igbo voted against and must not vote against again.
Ikechukwu Amaechi, a veteran journalist and public affairs commentator, in his piece entitled “The Jagabanisation of Lagos Politics”, noted that neither Buhari nor Abubakar is Yoruba and both the APC and the PDP are national political parties, recalling that the PDP won in Ondo and Oyo states and were voted for by Yoruba.
Ameachi, who could not understand what the Yoruba interest is all about, also recalled that in Lagos, Buhari polled 580,814 votes against Atiku’s 448,016 votes, pointing out that there are as many Yoruba in the PDP as there are in the APC.
“Buhari garnered votes in all the South East states as he did in every other region just as Atiku also did…So, what is the issue?” he queried.
Amaechi further argued, “Is Jimi Agbaje, the Lagos State PDP governorship candidate not Yoruba? How then could a vote for him be a vote against Yoruba interest? Is Chief Ayo Adebanjo no longer Yoruba? Is Chief Bode George not a Yoruba man? What is this overarching Yoruba interest that the Igbo must pay for with their blood and who determines it?
“In any case, if there is Yoruba interest as indeed there should be since politics is a game of interest, is it not only fair that Ndigbo must also have the right to determine what their interest is in the context of Nigeria and who serves it best? So, why must other interests be respected when Igbo interest is an anathema? Why must Igbo interest be subsumed into the Yoruba interest?”
However, both the Lagos State Police Command and Task Force on Environmental Sanitation and Special Offences, debunked the news of the attacks on Igbo traders, saying it was only a rumour.
Chike Oti, the Police public relations officer in the state, said in a statement, on Monday, February 25, that although the command received distress calls about the rumoured attacks, operatives were deployed in various parts of Oshodi and environs, adding that it did not receive information about any attack.
Oti stated: “The attention of the Lagos State Police Command has been drawn to the news making the rounds on the Internet to the effect that a group of boys, popularly called ‘area boys’, were attacking Igbo traders in Oshodi, preventing them from opening their shops.
“The command wishes to debunk the rumour in its entirety as nothing could be further from the truth.”
Meanwhile, Obi A. Umahi, the president general Ndigbo Lagos, said Igbo should come out and exercise their franchise without fear of intimidation.
“You cannot be intimidated outside and still be intimidated in your own country,” he cautioned.
– Mar. 8, 2019 @ 05:01 GMT |
Tags: Lagos Guber Poll: Desperation for Igbo votes
