Lagos State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Babajide Sanwo-Olu has warned his opponent, Jimi Agbaje, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), against causing ethnic tensions in the state ahead of the March 2, 2019 election.
On Tuesday, December 11, 2018, Agbaje took to his Twitter account to tackle Sanwo-Olu who said during a television interview that Lagos does not dislike its population of Igbo people from the southeast region, Agbaje tweeted that the electorate has not forgotten a previous threat against Igbos by a Yoruba monarch who supports APC.
He tweeted:
“On Lagos and the Igbos: The narrative that Lagos dislikes the Igbos is extremely false.
“Oh yes, Lagos does not dislike the Igbos, your political establishment does. The royal utterance of 2015 is still fresh on the mind of the entire electorate.
“He now works with the presidency. You must have been too busy or completely oblivious to be referring to him in present tense.”
The ‘royal utterance’ Agbaje referred to was a controversial statement made by Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, in 2015 when he threatened Igbos to vote for then-APC candidate, Akinwunmi Ambode. The monarch had said Igbos would perish in the lagoon if they didn’t vote for the APC candidate who eventually won the election over Agbaje. Akiolu said:
“On Saturday, if anyone of you, I swear in the name of God, goes against my wish that Ambode will be the next governor of Lagos State, the person is going to die inside this water.”
So, Sanwo-Olu took to his own Twitter account on Wednesday, December 12, to caution his opponent on his utterances, and warn him that campaign should be issue-based and not an avenue to instigate ethnic tensions in the state.
He tweeted:
“This election will be about who has the best credentials to lead Lagos at this time of our development. It won’t be about who can dish out the most insults or tell the most lies.
“It will also not be about who can instigate ethnic tensions between the Yorubas and the Igbos.”
He concluded that there’s a level of decency that is expected of Agbaje and urged him to focus on selling himself as the best candidate for the job.
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