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Atiku Abubakar of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has berated President-elect Bola Tinubu as a “hypocrite” for being silent while his loyalists threatened and disenfranchised voters during Saturday’s governorship and state House of Assembly elections in Lagos.
Mr Abubakar’s statement came as a reaction to Mr Tinubu’s condemnation of electoral violence and voter intimidation that marred the March 18 elections.
“Tinubu’s latest statement is laced with hypocrisy and lies. For a whole month, traditional leaders, transport hooligans, and politicians in his camp threatened non-indigenes but Tinubu kept mute,” Mr Abubakar said in a statement by his spokesperson Frank Shuaibu.
Citing how voters were intimidated and disenfranchised in Lagos during the elections, Mr Abubakar accused Mr Tinubu of shielding his thugs and loyalists from prosecution.
“His lackey, MC Oluomo, who is a member of his Presidential campaign council, was seen on video threatening Igbo people but Tinubu said nothing. His campaign spokesmen, Bayo Onanuga and Femi Fani-Kayode, went on social media to warn Igbo people against exercising their franchise but Tinubu looked the other way.
“Traditional rulers imposed curfews and went about slaughtering goats and placing them in front of polling units but Tinubu said nothing. A traditional leader and council chairman in the Gbara community, Eti Osa local government summoned non-indigenes to a meeting where they threatened non-indigenes with eviction if they failed to vote for the APC but Tinubu said nothing. Those invited by the police ignored invitations because Tinubu was shielding them,” Mr Abubakar said.
Peoples Gazette reported how APC thugs and supporters roamed the streets of Lagos on Saturday, warning those who will not vote for APC to stay at home.
Before Saturday’s election, on Thursday, Musiliu ‘MC Oluomo’ Akinsanya, who commands APC thugs in Lagos, threatened Igbos who will not vote APC to stay at home.
Spokeperson for the Nigerian Police, Okumuyiwa Adejobi, dismissed MC Oluomo’s threat as a “joke” when asked what actions the police was going to take.
After the election, on Sunday, Bayo Onanuga, a top aide of Mr Tinubu, who’s expected to play a key role in the incoming administration, took to Twitter to push toxic anti-Igbo ethnic slurs.
“Let 2023 be the last time of Igbo interference in Lagos politics,” Mr Onanuga said, tweeting a photo of Peter Obi, an Igbo from Anambra, who backed Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, a Yoruba from Lagos, in the Saturday’s election. “Let there be no repeat in 2027.”
On Tuesday, the U.S. said it was disturbed by widespread cases of ethnically-induced voter suppression in Lagos during the March 18 governorship election, saying such action would not go unpunished.
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