The President-elect, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu
Buhari (retd.), has urged the Ndigbo and other non-indigenes in Lagos
State to forgive all that has been said against them and move on for the
sake of peace.
Buhari said this during a rally in Lagos to address the comments made by the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu.
Akiolu has been under fire since Monday
when he reportedly threatened the Ndigbo in Lagos to either vote for the
All Progressives Congress governorship candidate, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode,
or perish in the lagoon.
The Peoples Democratic Party on Tuesday asked Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola to suspend Akiolu forthwith.
However, the President-elect described
Lagos as home for all, adding that the time had come for Nigerians to
look past ethnicity in the general interest of peace and unity.
He said, “I admire what your governor
has done in terms of mobilising revenue to sustain Lagos development. I
have a lot of respect for Governor Fashola for his hard work, commitment
to the state and the country. There is no doubt that Lagos is a
mini-Nigeria. We are all here and it has been mentioned by previous
speakers that everybody (tribe) is adequately represented in Lagos.
“So, I assure you. If you vote for the
continuity of APC in Lagos, you stand to gain more. It is in your
interest that you vote for the APC.
“Please when you go home tell your
neighbours, relatives and even the opposition to please bury the
hatchet. Let them fall in line and vote the APC.
“When we were coming in our bus, Fashola
told me how Lagos State had been spending to maintain the federal
infrastructure here such as buildings, roads and other institutions. I
had promised before that if I won the election and became the President,
I would make Lagos my priority. Governor Fashola is already holding to
me to that promise so I would like the incoming governor to listen
carefully and make sure he makes me honour my undertaking.”
The National Chairman of the APC, Chief
John Odigie-Oyegun, said Lagos was responsible for building the
opposition and ensuring that it finally took control of the centre.
He said it would be a great injustice for Lagos to become an opposition state after working so hard to build a bright future.
Akinolu can’t speak for APC –Tinubu
Also speaking, a former Governor of
Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, said Akiolu was not a member of the APC and
could not speak on behalf of the party.
Tinubu, who noted that he was the first
Yoruba governor to ever appoint an Igbo commissioner, said the Peoples
Democratic Party, having failed to win last week’s presidential
elections, had been desperately trying to pull the APC into the Akiolu
controversy.
He said the coordinator of the
Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria, Ifeanyi Ubah, and the PDP leader,
Bode George, were only making baseless accusations against the APC.
Tinubu said, “The Oba is not a
politician. His job is to accommodate all political parties whether PDP,
APC or SDP. So, what did he (Ubah) go and do at the palace? Is the Oba a
politician?
“To you Igbo, don’t we pay your
children’s school fees like others? Or is it the palace that pays for
it? When we conducted an exam and a spelling competition, an Igbo boy,
Ebuka, from Anambra, came first and he became the governor for one day.
“Those that won the competition three
times in a row were Igbo. Ebuka was sent to Switzerland computer school
and then Obafemi Awolowo University. We did not say he was an Igbo boy
and he would not enjoy. He became an executive in Oando and he is now in
Canada.
“Another boy, Felix, won and went to Switzerland and OAU. We paid his scholarship; we did not deny him because he is Igbo.”
‘Suspend him now’
But the PDP said the Lagos monarch
should be on suspension till after Saturday’s governorship and state
House of Assembly elections in order to guarantee free, fair and
credible elections in the state.
In a statement issued on Tuesday by
Lagos PDP Publicity Secretary, Mr. Taofik Gani, the party said it had
also alerted the security agencies to hold the monarch responsible for
any attack on non-indigenes or PDP members in Lagos.
The statement read in part, “The
governor is thus a conspirator in this threat to life and must also be
held accountable for any violence in these elections. We have at this
point been vindicated about the desperation of the APC to retain Lagos
State at all cost, including the All Progressives Congress’ plan not to
concede the imminent defeat on April 11.
“The positions of the PDP are coming on
the heels of the now viral threat issued by the Oba of Lagos to Ndigbo
that they must vote for the APC governorship candidate, Akinwunmi
Ambode, or be drowned in Lagos water.”
Despite the alleged threat to their lives, PDP urged Lagos non-indigenes and others to be part of Saturday’s voting exercise.
Monarch spoke out of anger –APC
Meanwhile, the Publicity Secretary of
the APC in Lagos State, Joe Igbokwe, said in a separate statement on
Tuesday that the monarch spoke out of anger.
Igbokwe urged his kinsmen not to take
out their anger on the APC governorship candidate, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode,
who knew nothing about the incident.
The statement read, “Oba Rilwan Akiolu
of Lagos is not a card-carrying member of APC. He is not a leader in the
APC. He does not speak for the APC. He did not speak for Governor
Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State.
“He did not speak for our national
leader, Bola Tinubu. He did not speak for the incoming governor, Mr
Akinwunmi Ambode. His Royal Highness is at liberty to speak for him and
he spoke for himself only.
“Lagos APC appeals to Ndigbo not to take
the statement as the position of the party in Lagos. We passionately
appeal to Ndigbo not to carry the statement credited to Oba Akiolu too
far so as not to put a knife on things that have held us together for
more than 50 years now. If out of annoyance you throw your cap away, a
mad man will take it and use it forever.”
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