- Moves to drag governor, others to court, international communities
From Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha
A group, Human Rights, Liberty Access, and Peace Defenders’ Foundation (HURIDE), has said that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State should be held responsible for all the attacks unleashed on the opposition parties and Ndigbo in Lagos State during this electioneering campaign period.
The group condemned acts of brigandage and incivility that have accompanied the governor’s re-election campaign.
The Chairman of HURIDE, Dede Uzor, alleged in a statement that opposition parties in Lagos State, Ndigbo, their shops and facilities have been targeted for attacks in the build-up to the Governorship and House of Assembly campaigns.
According to Uzor, “A spare parts market mainly occupied by Igbos was recently razed down, while some political parties’ campaign trains were attacked by hoodlums believed to be All Progressives Congress (APC) loyalists, allegedly working for Sanwo-Olu.
“Just a few days ago, a pupil in one of the schools in Lagos State was sent home by the school authority for using Peter Obi, Labour Party’s presidential candidate’s campaign poster to rap his book.
“We condemned this Sanwo-Olu’s hysterical desperation in his second term campaigns, which has led to all these primitive attacks on the citizens of this country in Lagos State”.
The group said democracy is not the rule of brute force but by freedom, for people to choose their leaders, saying that it is unfortunate that after four years in the saddle, Sanwo-Olu could not beat his chest and ask Lagosians irrespective of ethnic and religious background and party affiliation to vote him based on his track records and yet to open up and condemn such heinous crimes.
The rights group said that his action has allegedly compelled him to resort to intimidation and violence, thinking that would be his saving grace.
HURIDE expressed shock that Lagos which prizes itself as a State of excellence is engaging in crude attack and unleashing injury and pain on people they perceived not to be their supporters.
The rights group said they have been chronicling all the atrocities being inflicted on the opposition, Ndigbo and others in Lagos State on account of this election and would not hesitate to push for severe consequences for the perpetrators.
The group threatened to drag Sanwo-Olu and his cohorts to Court to account for their heinous attacks on innocent people because of his second-term ambition.
It however called on the international community: the United Nations, African Union, the United States, Canada and the European Union as well as international humanitarian organisations like Amnesty International and Human Right Watch to take note of the destructive activities of the Lagos State Governor in the build-up to this election.