A civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria or HURIWA has warned the security agencies not to condone igbophobia which is trending on social media.....KINDLY READ THE FULL STORY HERE▶
A statement on Friday by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko said those posting hate messages against members of the Igbo ethnic group residing and doing legitimate businesses in the South-West of were emboldened by the fact that the Police tolerated same tendencies during the presidential election when the current president lost Lagos to the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi.
HURIWA recalled that in March 2023 just before the gubernatorial election that one Mr. Musiliu Akinsanya, the then Lagos State Parks Management Committee Chairman, also known as MC Oluomo, had warned Igbos in the state ahead of Saturday’s governorship election.
Addressing supporters of the ruling All Progressives Congress or APC at a meeting, HURIWA said MC Oluomo threatened the Igbo who will not vote for the party to stay at home.
The statement quoted MC Oluomo as saying, “We have begged them. If they don’t want to vote for us, it is not a fight. Tell them, Mama Chukwudi, if you don’t want to vote for us, sit down at home. Sit down at home.”
The group noted that the threat came after Peter Obi won the presidential poll in Lagos.
The rights group said “regrettably the police through the Force Public Relations Officer who hails from the South West attempted to rationalise these unambiguous and open threats to the lives” of the Igbo ethnic group just as “armed political thugs then went ahead to attack Igbo voters indiscriminately”.
“Till date,” the group lamented, “those who made the threats were never arrested but were rewarded with juicy appointments.”
HURIWA recalled that “Mr. Bayo Onanuga who is now Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy openly warned Igbos that 2023 general poll is the last time they will be left in peace to interfere in Lagos State politics and affirmed that he has no apologies to make even if his words are seen as threatening Igbos.”
HURIWA therefore condemned the security forces including the Police for allowing “ethnic irredentists and hate criminals in Lagos state to continue to post hate messages targeting certain ethnic nationalities including the recent one” on X/ Twitter “in which the account owners were quoted as calling for ethnic genocide against the Igbo in Lagos and South West.”
The rights group wondered why the federal government has maintained “sealed lips over these toxic and hate messages.”
In the statement denouncing the recent threats as a declaration of intent to unleash genocidal killings, the rights group charged the security forces to identify, arrest and prosecute the account holder for attempting to instigate civil strife in the country.
HURIWA said it was unfortunate that the “federal government inhabits certain characters who nurse deep seated hatred for Ndigbo such as the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga.”
The group called on the “IGP to behave like the chief law enforcement officer of all of Nigeria and go after those posting threats against the Igbo and get them prosecuted and punished before they set Nigeria on fire.
“Attempt to carry out any threat against the Igbo in any part of Nigeria could spell doom for Nigeria and this is not what the nation needs at these troubling times.
“Let the President ensure that his security chiefs do not permit, tolerate Igbophobia,” the rights group said.