Oba Akiolu gets stung for threat on Ndigbo (Watch video)

Nigerians from different walks of life and groups have continued to condemn the threat by the Oba of Lagos against the Igbos in Lagos that if they do not vote for the APC in the governorship elections on Saturday, they should be ready to perish in the lagoon
The Catholic Caritas Foundation of Nigeria (CCFN), an organ of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, in a statement by its Executive Secretary, Rev. Fr. Evaristus Bassey, on Monday in Abuja said Akiolu was “missing the point that Nigeria is a Republic and a democracy and not a monarchy.”
The group therefore called on Akiolu to revert his “curse” on the Igbos, and rather appeal to the people, “for indeed, such a threat may amount to playing God and God, who is a merciful father, will not allow his children to die so senselessly just because they are fulfilling the dictates of their conscience.”
On their part, the youth wing of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo gave the monarch 48 hours to withdraw his threat and apologise for his outburst against the Igbos.
The Ohanaeze youth wing said it considered the comments credited to the monarch as “a despicable insult on the Igbo nation home and abroad, least expected of a royal father in the rank of Oba of Lagos.”
In a statement in Umuahia on Monday, the National President of Ohanaeze Youth Council, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, said “Nobody, no matter what he thinks he is, has the right to command Ndigbo anywhere on who to vote for in a democratic setting.”
Also, Olisa Metuh, National Publicity Secretary of the PDP condemned the remarks by Akiolu, describing it as “barbaric”, and a descend “to a height of unruliness that should not be accommodated.
He said in a statement, that “it is indeed most unfortunate that a royal father of the status of the Oba of Lagos should attempt to drag the revered traditional institution into partisan politics to the level of threatening innocent Nigerians with the view to prevent them from freely exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right”.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now