Aggrieved Igbo men have initiated moves to formally file a case against the Oba of Lagos, Alhaji Rilwanu Akiolu, at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague, Netherlands, for his hate messages against the Igbo Nation.

“The Igbos, who cut across diverse disciplines, have conclude plans to initiate the court proceedings which may lead to the arrest of the Lagos monarch. According to them, the hate speech which was captured on video and audio had the monarch threatening that any Igbo man or woman who refused to vote for his preferred candidate Akinwunmi Ambode will drown in the Lagoon. The hate speech, according to them, exposed them to danger and is capable of triggering a genocide against their people just as it happened in Rwanda and Kenya,” CKN Nigeria reported this morning.

A related report in Vanguard quoted Dr. Josef Onoh, son of former governor of old Anambra State, Chief C.C Onoh, as having vowed to drag Oba Akiolu to the ICC over the controversial threat issued when a group of Igbo chiefs in Lagos visited him last weekend.

Onoh, reacting to the threat, described the Oba’s utterance as “a grievous incitement against the Igbos in Lagos,” said the paper.

It quoted Onoh Junior as further saying: “Let it be known that whether Oba Akiolu’s threat comes to fruition or not, I have concluded plans to take him to the ICC where he will keep company to the like Charles Taylor and answer to human right charges that will be preferred against him . . .

“I urge all Lagosians and indeed the entire Nigerians to come out in mass on Saturday to vote for candidates of their choice irrespective of party affiliation or tribe.”

The controversy arose yesterday morning when some dailies reported that Oba Akiolu, a retired police chief, had warned that any Igbo resident who votes against the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Akinwunmi Ambode, in Saturday’s poll in Lagos would die.

Akiolu, who summoned all Eze Ndigbo in Lagos State to his palace on Sunday, warned that he would not have anyone or Igbo men stop Ambode from becoming governor. He was caught on tape saying:

“On Saturday, if any one of you goes against Ambode who I picked, that is your end. If it doesn’t happen within seven days, just know that I am a bastard and it’s not my father who gave birth to me.

“Jonathan is my son and I speak to him every day, 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, goes against my wish that Ambode will be the next governor of Lagos State, the person is going to die inside this water.

“I am not ready to beg you. Nobody knew how I picked Ambode. Jimi is my blood relation and I told him that he can 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, 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.”

•Photo shows Oba Akiolu.

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