Amid the hue and cry against APC enforcer Musiliu ‘MC Oluomo’ Akinsanya’s threatening Igbos who will not vote for the party in Saturday’s governorship and state assembly elections to stay at home, the speaker of the Lagos House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, has appealed to residents to conduct themselves peacefully during polls.
On Friday, Mr Obasa appealed in a statement urging youths not to engage in thuggery, electoral violence or any other act that could undermine peace.
“Our youths should not engage in anything that will disrupt the peace and tranquility of the nation. They should conduct themselves honourably, during and after elections,” the APC legislator said.
Mr Obasa also urged parents and guardians to advise their wards and children not to foment trouble during the election, appealing to Nigerians not to allow their political differences to cause violence or other problems capable of throwing the country into crisis.
The Lagos speaker, an ally of President-elect Bola Tinubu, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and MC Oluomo, did not comment on the latest threat against the Igbos in Lagos.
“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,” MC Oluomo had said in pidgin English in a viral video shared on Twitter.
MC Oluomo, leader of the Lagos motor park management committee, is notorious for commanding the militant wing of the ruling APC in Lagos, and his threat could scare would-be voters away from exercising their franchise.
Operatives of the APC have, in the last week, deployed several tactics to stop opposition parties and their supporters from fully participating in the March 18 governorship and state assembly elections after the shock loss to the Labour Party in the February 25 presidential polls.
Mr Babajide has made frantic efforts, intensifying his campaigns to appease the Igbo community and aggrieved youths over the governor’s handling of the EndSARS Lekki Tollgate massacre.
The Labour Party’s unprecedented victory in Lagos has positioned its standard-bearer Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour as a major challenger of Mr Sanwo-Olu of the APC in the governorship election slated for Saturday.
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