Burnt remains of the Olowu spare parts market in Ikeja destroyed by suspected thugs, Thursday morning
Igbo chiefs in Lagos threaten to invite IPOB to secure properties, as police vow ‘never to allow such’ (+video)
Following the spate of violent attacks on their businesses and lives in Lagos, Igbo chiefs in the state have threatened to invite militants of the pro-secession group, the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) to provide protection for them.
This is also as the Lagos Police Command has vowed to ‘never allow such within the state.’
Since the conclusion of the general elections and even during the exercise, the Igbo community has been at the receiving end of violent attacks from thugs said to be working for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, especially since the surprise victory of the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Peter Obi, during the February 25 presidential polls in the state.
No fewer than three major markets dominated by the Igbo community in the state, including; the Akere spare parts market in Ajeromi-Ifelodun local government area, footwear sections of the Balogun market on the Lagos Island, and only last Thursday, the Olowu spare parts market in Ikeja, have been burnt down in the space of three weeks in March, this year, with millions of Naira worth of good destroyed, even as the traders point accusing fingers at political thugs.
Before the elections, a section of the highbrow Tejuosho market in Yaba was also razed.
It would also be recalled that the governorship candidate of the LP in the March 18 elections, Mr Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour in his petition to the International Criminal Court (ICC) filed last Thursday, asked the court to investigate the role of the APC chieftains including state Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu over the death of eight of the Labour Party’s members and elections agents, mostly Igbos, at the hands of thugs working for the APC during the General Elections conducted in Lagos.
Reacting to the attacks, on the Igbo people and their businesses, the Eze Igbo of Ajao Estate in Lagos State, Chief Fredrick Nwajagu, in a now viral video on Twitter, Friday, threatened to invite members of the IPOB to Lagos State to secure Igbo properties in the state.
The Igbo leader declared that he stands by his words and that ‘his people must take a stand in Lagos State by shutting down their economic activities to protest the alleged intimidation they had been facing from other non-Igbo residents of the state.’
“If not one month, two weeks, if not two weeks, for a one week, if not one week, three days.
“Let us know how it is between us and them in this state. Since they have been chasing us to go, let’s shut down for one week or two weeks so we can know how the state will be.
“Whenever Igbos travel for Christmas, the state will be empty and they will be waiting for us to come back and when we return, the state will become busy, and there will be traffic jam and everything will become busy.
“Now they are asking us to go. They should stop threatening us with going back to our place. We will stop peace, peace will stop.
“If we shut down markets, we have securities in Anambra, the IPOB, we will invite them and we will pay them, and that is part of what we can do for them and give them a job. Members of IPOB have no job. When we shut down markets, IPOB will secure our shops and we will pay them. We have to start that and we have to have our own security so that they will stop attacking us in the midnight, in the morning, in the afternoon. They will stop attacking us by emergency,” the Eze said.
Meanwhile, reacting to the threat by the Igbo chief to invite IPOB into the state for protection, the Lagos Police Command’s Spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyin, posting via his Twitter handle (@BenHundeyin) responded with: “To start with, the ever-ready @LagosPoliceNG will never fold its arms and allow such within the state…”
