The Pan-Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide says it has joined millions of patriotic Nigerians and all the members of the civilized community to condemn the recent calls for Igbos to vacate from Lagos.

The group also commended former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Governor Sanwo-Olu and Afenifere over their stand on the issue.

The National Publicity Secretary of the group, Dr. Chiedozie Ogbonnia, revealed this in a statement on Sunday.

The statement read, “Ohanaeze Ndigbo notes with grave concern the orchestrated ethnic profiling, hate speech, incendiary and inflammatory rhetoric and outright demolition of Igbo properties and liquidation of their sources of income in Lagos State since a few years now.

“However, it is certain that such reckless, provocative, divisive, instigative and inflammatory dispositions towards the Igbos in Lagos State, will remain unabated, except of course, there are manifest consequences for such vexatious, unscrupulous loose cannons and hate-mongers.

“The most recent recrudescence is that the “Lagosians and every South-West stakeholder should prepare for the massive protest of #IgboMustGo on the 20th – 30th of August, 2024. An X handle named ‘LagosPedia’ had recently demanded for “the forced relocation of Igbo people from Lagos and other South West states within one month”. The hashtag #Igbomustgo also called on all ‘the Yoruba living in the South East to return to the South West’.

“In June 2023, a few days before the March 18, 2023 gubernatorial elections, a video went viral on social media showing Alh. Musiliu Akinsanya, commonly known as ‘MC Oluomo’, where he issued a threat to the Igbo residents of Lagos to ‘either vote for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) or stay at home’.

“Based on the Oluomo doltish tantrums, political thugs went on a rampage carrying out civil-war-era-style eye tests to determine who was an Igbo and who was not. According to the report, those they deemed to be Igbo were violently deprived of their right to vote. In some cases, people of other ethnic groups who did not pass the eye tests were also beaten and forced out of polling units.”

Earlier in 2015, Ohanaeze Ndigbo explained that the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu had issued a threat to the Igbo living in Lagos State “to either vote for the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Akinwumi Ambode, or else they will die in the lagoon.

“Following the same trend, on March 19, 2023, Bayo Onanuga, now the Special Adviser to the President on Communications and Strategy, was reported by several news media to have issued a serious warning to the Igbo stating, ‘Let 2023 be the last time of Igbo interference in Lagos politics. Let there be no repeat in 2027.’ When many well-meaning Nigerians including Mr. Festus Keyamo cautioned Onanuga on the ignoble path he has chosen for himself, he was quoted to have stated: ‘I owe no one apology for ethnic slur against the Igbo.

“On March 8, 2023, it was widely reported that political thugs had set the Igbo-majority market, the Akere Spare Parts Market, on fire. The Igbo leaders in the market confirmed that they were told “that they would burn our markets, and they have called some of us to their meetings where they threatened to wipe the Igbo out”. It added “they are on social media, even making videos with their face and names on the video, yet security agencies didn’t do anything to caution them or bring them to book.

“Within the same period, it was also reported that the political thugs also destroyed goods and properties belonging to the Igbo at Ikotun, Abaranje, and Ijegun markets. In June 2023, several buildings belonging to the Igbos were demolished at the Alaba International Market. The President of the Alaba International Market, Chief Camilus Amajuoyi, expressed surprise that soon after they supported His Excellency, Babajide Sanwo-Olu on his re-election for a second term in Office, the authorities of the Lagos State served them with a calamity that can only be contemplated on an enemy zone in a war time. He decried the ordeals of the over one million Igbo traders in Alaba International Market, lamenting that despite their contributions to the economy of the state, they were being paid back with persecutions.

“In November 2023, there was again the demolition of buildings belonging to the Igbos at Abule Ado in Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos state. It was so sad. The points raised above are but a tip of the iceberg of what the Igbo encounter in Lagos daily,” it said.

Ohanaeze therefore, commended Chief Obasanjo on his recent remarks about the Igbo Must Go hashtag, who in a press release, admonished that “those saying that the Igbo must go from Lagos will be the ones to leave”, adding, “he doesn’t believe that anybody in Nigeria should be driven away from any part of the country, asserting that, we own this country together”.

The Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the group said had also condemned the Igbo-Must-Go misadventures in a press release by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Governor, Mr. Gbenga Akosile, stating, “the Governor of Lagos State and indeed, Lagos State Government wish to distance themselves from the reckless, divisive and dangerous rhetoric. Lagos remains home to every Nigerian citizen, regardless of their ethnic nationality”. The (Igbo-Must-Go) post, Sanwo-Olu said was “not only reckless and divisive but an attempt to sow a seed of discord between the Yoruba in the South-west and other tribes, especially those who have made Lagos their permanent place of abode”.

Similarly, Ohanaeze commended the Afenifere “for living up to expectations” and who had through their National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi, called on “all Nigerians living legitimately in any part of Yorubaland to entertain no fear about their safety or be afraid of being forced out of the area”.

According to the statement, “the Secretary General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Ambassador Okey Emuchay, was highly elated by the intervention made by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo,” recalling that the Obasanjo dispositions to equity and fairness in all matters affecting Nigeria is very legendary.

“It was Obasanjo who insisted that the presidency of Nigeria should move to the North after his tenure, as a southerner and later to the South-South of Nigeria should become the President of Nigeria. When it mattered most, it was Obasanjo who lent full weight that the presidency of Nigeria should go to the South East of Nigeria in 2023. It was Obasanjo who posited that unless Nigeria throws its doors open to merit, competence and full inclusion of the Igbo in national affairs, the country will continue to flounder and grope in the dark,” it added.

The Obasanjo presidency was very blind to ethnicity. “The above qualities and more stand Chief Olusegun Obasanjo out as the conscience of the nation.” (The PUNCH)

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