Accusing the security agencies of being complicit, the South-East body warned that Igbo could not be intimidated unless the country did not want a united country called Nigeria.
The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, has condemned the attacks and alleged voter intimidation of Igbo in Lagos State, by both traditional rulers and the Resident Electoral Commissioner.
Accusing the security agencies of being complicit, the South-East body warned that Igbo could not be intimidated unless the country did not want a united country called Nigeria.
In a statement issued on Monday signed by National Publicity Secretary, Dr Alex Ogbonnia, Ohanaeze wondered why in every election, Igbos in Lagos would be a target of attack by traditional institutions and government agencies while at the same time they turned around to be preaching that the unity of Nigeria was indivisible and Indissoluble.
Ohanaeze said that it was despicable the remarks made by one Baale of Igbara community, Jakande, in Eti-Osa LGA of Lagos State that “only residents who have their Permanent Voter Cards and are ready to vote for the All Peoples Congress would be allowed to do business with them in the community," yet security agencies had yet to arrest or even invite him for questions.
Ohanaeze said, "The Baale should be made to understand that Nigeria has gone beyond such careless and inciting rhetoric as: “We are ready to fight; yes, I am not hiding it…” And that the Baale and his cohorts may know why the fight will begin but will surely not know how, where, when and in whose favour the fight will end.
"In other decent climes, the said Baale should be arrested and detained until the election is over. This will serve as a deterrent to some other ethnic chauvinists, crises entrepreneurs, hoodlums and low opportunists."
The apex-Igbo body further stated: "A few days ago, hoodlums in Lagos State attacked supporters of the Labour Party said to be on their way to Tafawa Balewa Square — the venue of the party’s presidential campaign rally.
“The hoodlums were said to have targeted the supporters to prevent them from attending the Labour Party rally. Some of the supporters had their clothing torn to shreds, while others sustained various degrees of injury during the incident. The report further indicates that lives were lost. This is one of the outcomes of the Baale’s incantations.
"Most recently, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Lagos State, Segun Agbaje stated that the reason the Igbo in Lagos cannot have their PVC is that they are from the South East part of the country, inferring that they are immigrants; in what Dr Bolaji O Akinyemi criticised as a “Conspiracy against Democracy: INEC REC; Segun Agbaje’s Outburst, Other Matters Arising” and thus accused the INEC REC of being complicit in a plan to disenfranchise the Igbo in Lagos.
"The Secretary General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Ambassador Okey Emuchay, expresses disappointment that some people would descend so low at this level of our national development.
"One would expect that soliciting votes in a democracy requires the greatest public relations skill such as persuasion, entreaties, lobbying and the likes. Nigerians are informed that there is this spirit that emboldens and stirs the passion, soul, and turpitude of the average Igbo, which once it is sufficiently provoked, becomes irrepressible.
"For instance, the first major freedom march in America's history was by the Igbo. Known as the Igbo Landing, the Igbo slaves in 1803 chose to die than live a life of misery and slavery. They took control of the ship conveying them from a Spanish captain, Joseph Cinqué and drowned everybody including the captain at Dunbar Creek on St. Simons Island, Glynn County, Georgia, USA.
"In other words, self-esteem, achievement motivation, resourcefulness, hard work, forthrightness, tenacity, friendliness and cosmopolitanism are the hallmarks of the Igbo persona, but to threaten the Igbo is to embolden them to the contrary. Intimidation is not only antithetical to democratic norms but a source of allergy to the natural Igbo reflexes.
"In spite of all the orchestrated conspiracy, machinations and deprivations against the Igbo, and now the Labour Party and Mr Peter Obi, the initiated will easily realise that there is a mystic wind blowing across the land; a wind that does not recognise the rigid human barriers of ethnicity, religion, gender, class or creed; a wind of redemption from poverty, corruption, inequity and other pathologies that have held Nigeria down for several decades; a cosmic wind that attracts the virtuous as it overwhelms the vicious.
"Ohanaeze Ndigbo therefore urges the Igbo in Lagos and indeed everywhere to ignore all forms of retrogressive subversive shenanigans and stand up for your rights," the statement read.