please forgive Akiolu~Buhari to Igbos

Muhammadu Buhari has pleaded with the Ndigbo and other non-indigenes
in Lagos State to forgive all that has been said against them and move
on for the sake of peace.
The president elect said this during a rally in Lagos to address the
comments made by the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu.
The oba has been under fire since Monday when he reportedly threatened
the Ndigbo in Lagos to either vote for the All Progressives Congress
governorship candidate, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, or perish in the lagoon.
The Peoples Democratic Party on Tuesday asked Lagos State Governor
Babatunde Fashola to suspend Akiolu forthwith.
However, the President-elect described Lagos as home for all, adding
that the time had come for Nigerians to look past ethnicity in the
general interest of peace and unity.
He said, "I admire what your governor has done in terms of mobilising
revenue to sustain Lagos development. I have a lot of respect for
Governor Fashola for his hard work, commitment to the state and the
country. There is no doubt that Lagos is a mini-Nigeria. We are all
here and it has been mentioned by previous speakers that everybody
(tribe) is adequately represented in Lagos.
"So, I assure you. If you vote for the continuity of APC in Lagos, you
stand to gain more. It is in your interest that you vote for the APC.
"Please when you go home tell your neighbours, relatives and even the
opposition to please bury the hatchet. Let them fall in line and vote
the APC.
"When we were coming in our bus, Fashola told me how Lagos State had
been spending to maintain the federal infrastructure here such as
buildings, roads and other institutions. I had promised before that if
I won the election and became the President, I would make Lagos my
priority. Governor Fashola is already holding to me to that promise so
I would like the incoming governor to listen carefully and make sure
he makes me honour my undertaking."
The National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, said Lagos
was responsible for building the opposition and ensuring that it
finally took control of the centre.
He said it would be a great injustice for Lagos to become an
opposition state after working so hard to build a bright future.
Akinolu can't speak for APC–Tinubu
Also speaking, a former Governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, said
Akiolu was not a member of the APC and could not speak on behalf of
the party.
Tinubu, who noted that he was the first Yoruba governor to ever
appoint an Igbo commissioner, said the Peoples Democratic Party,
having failed to win last week's presidential elections, had been
desperately trying to pull the APC into the Akiolu controversy.
He said the coordinator of the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria,
Ifeanyi Ubah, and the PDP leader, Bode George, were only making
baseless accusations against the APC.
Tinubu said, "The Oba is not a politician. His job is to accommodate
all political parties whether PDP, APC or SDP. So, what did he (Ubah)
go and do at the palace? Is the Oba a politician?
"To you Igbo, don't we pay your children's school fees like others? Or
is it the palace that pays for it? When we conducted an exam and a
spelling competition, an Igbo boy, Ebuka, from Anambra, came first and
he became the governor for one day.
"Those that won the competition three times in a row were Igbo. Ebuka
was sent to Switzerland computer school and then Obafemi Awolowo
University. We did not say he was an Igbo boy and he would not enjoy.
He became an executive in Oando and he is now in Canada.
"Another boy, Felix, won and went to Switzerland and OAU. We paid his
scholarship; we did not deny him because he is Igbo."
'Suspend him now'
But the PDP said the Lagos monarch should be on suspension till after
Saturday's governorship and state House of Assembly elections in order
to guarantee free, fair and credible elections in the state.
In a statement issued on Tuesday by Lagos PDP Publicity Secretary, Mr.
Taofik Gani, the party said it had also alerted the security agencies
to hold the monarch responsible for any attack on non-indigenes or PDP
members in Lagos.
The statement read in part, "The governor is thus a conspirator in
this threat to life and must also be held accountable for any violence
in these elections. We have at this point been vindicated about the
desperation of the APC to retain Lagos State at all cost, including
the All Progressives Congress' plan not to concede the imminent defeat
on April 11.
"The positions of the PDP are coming on the heels of the now viral
threat issued by the Oba of Lagos to Ndigbo that they must vote for
the APC governorship candidate, Akinwunmi Ambode, or be drowned in
Lagos water."
Despite the alleged threat to their lives, PDP urged Lagos
non-indigenes and others to be part of Saturday's voting exercise.
Monarch spoke out of anger–APC
Meanwhile, the Publicity Secretary of the APC in Lagos State, Joe
Igbokwe, said in a separate statement on Tuesday that the monarch
spoke out of anger.
Igbokwe urged his kinsmen not to take out their anger on the APC
governorship candidate, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, who knew nothing about
the incident.
The statement read, "Oba Rilwan Akiolu of Lagos is not a card-carrying
member of APC. He is not a leader in the APC. He does not speak for
the APC. He did not speak for Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos
State.
"He did not speak for our national leader, Bola Tinubu. He did not
speak for the incoming governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode. His Royal
Highness is at liberty to speak for him and he spoke for himself only.
"Lagos APC appeals to Ndigbo not to take the statement as the position
of the party in Lagos. We passionately appeal to Ndigbo not to carry
the statement credited to Oba Akiolu too far so as not to put a knife
on things that have held us together for more than 50 years now. If
out of annoyance you throw your cap away, a mad man will take it and
use it forever."
Firstclassnewsline.net

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