THE Chairman, Lagos State Parks and Management Committee, Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo, has retracted his threat to Igbos in Lagos State over the governorship and House of Assembly elections holding in the state tomorrow, Saturday, March 18.
Oluomo had, in a viral video, warned residents of the state from the South-East to remain in their homes on the election day if they would not vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC), the ruling party in the state.
Oluomo had said in the video, “Please tell them, we have begged them. If they don’t vote for us, it is not a fight. Tell them that Chukwudi’s mother, if you don’t vote for us, sit down at home. Do you understand? Sit down in your house.”
Reacting to the threat, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Idowu Owohunwa, said the command had launched an investigation into the threat.
Speaking on Arise Television, Owohunwa condemned the threat in the strongest terms.
He said the police would not condone any act or statement that could be interpreted as hate speech from anyone, no matter how highly placed.
The commissioner said the law would not spare any troublemaker before, during or after the poll.
But Oluomo said, following a threat by the police boss to probe him, that he was misinterpreted.
He denied threatening the Igbo extraction, who are a large population in the state.
“The meeting I went to yesterday… Iya Chukwudi is like a sister to me. I was actually referring to her in the video. The next thing I saw was people calling me out on social media.
“I’m always on peace (peaceful). If you look at Lagos, you will see there is peace here. Why will I even tell people not to come out to vote? How are we (APC) going to get a vote if people refuse to come out en mass? APC is my party. Count me out of the rumour,” he reportedly said.
The ICIR reports that the major candidates vying for the governor’s seat are the incumbent Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party (LP), and AbdulAzeez Adediran of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), about seven million voters are in Lagos State. The state tops others in the number of permanent voter cards (PVCs) collected in the country.
Voters will file to the 4,861 polling units in the state, the highest in the country, to elect the governor and members of the state House of Assembly, who will lead them in the next four years.
The ICIR reported how the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate defeated the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, of the APC, and the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in the state, in the election conducted on February 25.
On March 16, The ICIR also reported how the state had been tension-soaked as the three leading candidates battling for the governorship seat get set for the election.
Marcus bears the light, and he beams it everywhere. He's a good governance and decent society advocate. He's The ICIR Reporter of the Year 2022 and has been the organisation's News Editor since September 2023. Contact him via email @ mfatunmole@icirnigeria.org