HURIWA Wants ICC To Put Oba Of Lagos On Notice Over Anti Igbo Speech
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) a non- governmental body with pro- democracy tendency has asked The Hague, Netherlands based international Crimes Court(ICC) to take special notice of the widely reported hate speech made by the Monarch of Lagos against members of the Igbo ethnic nationality residing in Lagos on who to cast their votes in the Lagos State governorship poll on Saturday.
The Rights group said the chief prosecutor of the global crimes court must issue a cautionary indictment against Oba Akiolu of Lagos for threatening to order attacks against members of the Igbo Ethnic bloc residing peacefully in Lagos state should they fail to vote for the monarch's choice candidate of the All Progressives Congress Mr Ambode.
HURIWA noted that such a choreographed hate speech directed at the Igbo Ethnic group by such a high profile traditional ruler that wields enormous interest in an area dominated by well known hoodlums(Lagos Area boys) must not be swept under the carpet but must be seen for what it is-a grave threat to national security.
Besides HURIWA has asked the Nigeria's national Security Adviser Colonel Sambo Dasuki and the Military chiefs to call the Oba of Lagos to order even as the police Service Commission must probe the Monarch- a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police for act capable of creating widespread anarchy and if found guilty he should be demoted in rank and strip of some of his privileges as a retired police chief. President Jonathan must intervene to avoid bloodshed in Lagos.
In s statement, HURIWA's National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko said the national constitution permits freedom of movement, free democratic choices and right to own immovable property by all Nigerians wherever they choose to and wondered why the Oba of Lagos has resorted to political blackmail to seek to deny a major Ethnic bloc in Nigeria of their constitutionally guaranteed rights including right to individually cast their votes for the candidate and party of their choice.
The group faulted the involvement of the Oba of Lagos in partisan politics and queried how the Monarch arrived at the preposterous conclusion that all Igbo voters must necessarily vote for the Peoples Democratic Party.
The Rights group has also called on all right thinking Nigerians to collectively condemn the threat made against Igbos by the Oba of Lagos even as it called on Igbos in Lagos to file a class action in the Federal High Court to seek to enforce their fundamental human rights as Nigerian citizens with proper legal titles to reside and conduct their legitimate businesses in all parts of Nigeria including Lagos. "Certainly this threat is an attempt to incite genocide and must be taken up immediately by the ICC before the sinister plots are carried out" HURIWA stated.