A civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), on Monday, urged the international community to hold President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Spokesperson for Bola Tinubu Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, responsible, should the violence against Ndigbo resident in Lagos State intensify.

HURIWA specifically called on leaders such as the President of the United States of America Mr. Joe Biden, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Mr. Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau, to hold the two All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftains to account if any harm should come to Ndigbo in Lagos on account of the orchestrated violence by the APC.

According to the group, the trending video in which Tinubu was caught speaking in Yoruba language during the course of which he subtly described Igbo residents of Lagos as “strangers who want to bite the fingers that fed them”, just before the controversial gubernatorial election took place in Lagos.

Quoting Tinubu, HURIWA noted that the president-elect said: “(oracle ti soro) ohun ti awon agba Eko you fi jeko ni ojo Saturday, ebe ewe ni won toju re si,” which loosely translated means “these are people who left their villages, came to into Lagos from childhood, 12 years of age. We accommodated and took care of them. Now, they want to bite the fingers that fed them.” The group added that Tinubu further said: “Their case has now become that of a hen.”

HURIWA said although the President elect did not specify the people he referred to but the Rights group said the recent upsurge in anti-igbo attacks by core loyalists of Tinubu such as Bayo Onanuga, MC Oluomo, Femi Fani Kayode, points to the Igbos as the people being referred to by Tinubu in the trending video.

HURIWA observed that Tinubu’s statement made the election to be characterised by armed violent attacks against Igbo voters in Lagos, describing Tinubu’s statement as hate speech against Ndigbo and insisted that this resulted in the hate crime of voters’ suppression of Ndigbo and sporadic attacks on Ndigbos by hoodlums in Abuleado Festac extension of Lagos State.

HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, also called on Igbos in the state to defend themselves against attacks by hoodlums who are apparently sponsored by politicians who oppose the Labour Party’s governorship candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, who is not even an Igbo man but hated by Tinubu and his loyalists on the basis that he has an Igbo wife. On this score, the group noted that Tinubu doesn't have a Yoruba wife.

HURIWA expressed surprise that the Labour Party candidate who is from Lagos can be so blackmailed and his candidacy wrongly interpreted to mean that Igbos want to take over Lagos only because he is married to an Igbo woman but the political godfather of Lagos APC, Tinubu, is married to an Ishekiri woman.

The group said Onanuga’s statement contravene sections 125 and 128 of the Electoral Act 2022 and that he was liable to imprisonment for a term of 12 months or an imprisonment for a term of three years for inciting others in a disorderly manner and encouraging the use of force.

HURIWA totally condemned the attacks on Igbos during the March 18 governorship poll, especially coordinated attacks by hoodlums on Igbo-dominated areas like Amuwo-Odofin, Ojo and other local government areas where Igbos were said to have voted heavily for Peter Obi in the February 25 presidential poll.

The group also called on the police and other security agencies to immediately arrest Onanuga who had tweeted: “I don’t owe anyone any apology for addressing the existential threats of our people. I am after all, first of all a Yoruba, before being a Nigerian…Let 2023 be the last time of Igbo interference in Lagos politics;” for his inciting statements which was largely responsible for voter suppression and intimidation and ultimate low voter turnout in the March 18 governorship poll in Lagos.

The group maintained that all Nigerians regardless of their tribe or religion were constitutionally entitled to vote for whoever they choose and prefer in any election without being threatened, intimidated or harassed and vowed to drag ethnic jingoists and those whipping tribal sentiments to frustrate Igbo traders in Lagos due to their choice of LP candidates to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, over crimes against humanity.

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