Leon Usigbe
The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has warned that the ethnic profiling of Igbos in Lagos during last weekend’s election is a foretaste of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, intention to apply Nazi-style targeting of rights to vote and speak.
In a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, on Monday, he noted how the rights of the Jews were suppressed in Germany under Adolph Hitler.
Atiku warned that Nigeria may be headed in that direction under a Bola Tinubu Presidency.
According to the statement, the governorship election in Lagos where thugs asked those who did not intend to vote for the APC to return home was just a tip of what to expect under a Tinubu administration.
It added that it was even more disheartening that the thugs allegedly working for Tinubu were profiling voters and beating up those who were of Igbo extraction and asking them to return home
The statement alleged that Tinubu’s ultimate plan was to turn Nigeria into a one-party dictatorship based on the autocratic and totalitarian ideology of Nazism like Adolf Hitler did in Nazi Germany in the 1930s
It added: “What the world witnessed in Lagos at the March 18 governorship election was nothing short of Nazism. It was the tactic employed by Adolph Hitler in the 1930s. At that time, they engaged in profiling and used the Jews as their punching bag. Today, Tinubu has launched an assault on the Igbo and all non-Yoruba speakers in Lagos.
“Tinubu has adopted fascism with disdain for liberal democracy. With what happened in Lagos, Tinubu has elevated dictatorship, scientific racism, and Yoruba tribal supremacy and wants to take it to the federal level.
“When they see that they cannot win an election, they resort to profiling and whip up tribal sentiments and violence. They did it against Jimi Agbaje in 2015 as well.
“Tinubu has ruled Lagos for 23 years. Under his watch, the APC wins all local government elections. When it is time for governorship and State Assembly elections, he unleashes his thugs who also target non-Yoruba ethnic groups as you saw in Lagos on Saturday.
“Those that resisted the thugs were beaten. This is how he has maintained a grip on the state and has turned it into a one-party state. It is what Tinubu plans to bring to the centre: a Nazi-style of leadership that will make Nigerians view the past military dictatorship of Sani Abacha with nostalgia. May God save us!”
Atiku lambasted the spokesmen for Tinubu’s Campaign Council – Bayo Onanuga and Femi Fani-Kayode – for encouraging the intimidation of Igbo people in Lagos.
He observed that their statements were a reflection of their principal who, two days after the elections, had failed to condemn the violence.
Atiku further stated that the Nigerian constitution permits anyone in every part of the country to vote and be voted for regardless of religion, gender and tribe.
He said what Tinubu had done was to return and reverse some of the democratic gains that Nigeria had made.
Continuing, he said: “Bayo Onanuga, a hitherto respected journalist who claimed to have contributed to the fight against dictatorship, is now supporting injustice and attacks on the Igbo for daring to vote in Lagos. This is what happens when you associate yourself with Bola Tinubu. Your mind and soul get corrupted.
“For Fani-Kayode, a man who was Nnamdi Kanu’s handbag, he has suddenly become an ethnic supremacist, encouraging the suppression of the Igbo people in Lagos all in a bid to impress his paymaster. We never expected much from this Jekyll and Hyde.
“What the tribal bigots like Bayo Onanuga and Fani-Kayode will not tell you is that Ireti Kingibe, a Yoruba woman, has just been elected into the Senate to represent the FCT.”
Atiku similarly lambasted Tinubu’s campaign for calling on the National Broadcasting Commission to fine TV and radio stations that continue to invite Peter Obi of the Labour Party for interviews challenging Tinubu’s legitimacy.
He commended the rights group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), for asking a Federal High Court to bar NBC from suspending the licence of broadcast stations
The former vice president added, “Tinubu’s campaign team has already given us a glimpse of what his administration will look like. It will be about the suppression of voters’ rights, unimaginable corruption, repression of freedom of speech, and a total compromise of government agencies.
“For a man who rose to power over the claim that he led the struggle for the actualization of the June 12 mandate, this is another Nigerian tragedy.”
He said the police, the Department of State Services and other security agencies ought to go after all those who unleashed attacks on innocent voters in Lagos but the response from the Commissioner of Police in Lagos State that the election was peaceful was an indication that the police had no plan to arrest anyone.
He said the failure of the police to arrest the Chairman of Lagos Park and Garage Committee, Musilu Akinsanya aka MC Oluomo, after threatening Igbo people in a viral video was evidence of collusion.
He further said, “MC Oluomo – a henchman of Tinubu – was seen on video threatening Igbo and making inciting comments. Rather than arrest him, the Force Public Relations Office, Muyiwa Adejobi, said he was only joking. Amnesty International rightly called on the police not to treat this threat with kid gloves but the police ignored this.
“Viral videos show that on the day of the election, policemen looked the other way while innocent people were pummeled. Despite all the attacks in his home state where he voted, Tinubu has failed to comment. This is the sort of leadership he plans to give Nigerians.”
Atiku also knocked the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, for stalling the electoral offences bill which, if signed, could be used in dealing with electoral offenders.
He said Gbajabiamila was acting out a script written by Tinubu.
The statement recalled that Senate on July 14, 2021, passed the electoral offences bill but the House of Reps under the leadership of Femi Gbajabiamila has allegedly sat on it ever since despite pleas from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and election observers.
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