Idimogu who spoke at his
residence at Ejigbo on Saturday, April 1, 2023, advised that issue of elections
should not divide the two groups which have been living like brothers and sisters.
“There has
always been peace between the Igbos and Yorubas if not for the last election, that
tribal sentiment crept in, a typical Igbo man is peaceful, sincerely, he faces
his business and my Yoruba in-laws are good people, very accommodating, give it
to them, but they are also having that benefit, after all the development that
we have in Lagos State, is it in our villages? If they say Jude come and leave,
am I going to carry my house to my village? It remains in Lagos here, so it is
a matter of, they say, when the right hand washes the left hand and the left
washes the right, everything will be clean, that for me is a symbiotic
relationship.”
He also cautioned the Vice
Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the just concluded 2023 election,
Datti Baba-Ahmed over his inflammatory outbursts.
The lawmaker condemned the call
by Datti that the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives
Congress (APC) should not be sworn in, and tagged such utterance as
irresponsible, and a move geared towards bringing down the hard earned
democracy in the country.
His advice
to labour party Presidential candidates and his Peoples Democratic Party
counterpart who have gone to the court to challenge the outcome of the election,
“But they are in court already now, the only advice, since they are in court,
whatever decision the court takes, they should accept it, at the end of the
day, if it is appeal court, they can even appeal to the supreme court, it is
the final abitter, so we can’t say much, they are there already unless on their
own they want to withdraw their petitions, that is the best thing, fro me the
vice presidential candidate of labour party, Ahmed Dattilet him be careful…
“He should be careful with his
utterances. At his level and with his education, he should choose his language.
He does not own Nigeria. Nigeria won’t end because he lost election. Must you
win?
“The democratic process should be
followed. They have gone to court. They should follow the process to its
logical end. That’s the beauty of democracy”
“Atiku has contested elections
severally, and does not utter such divisive words. Datti-Ahmed is not even a
presidential candidate. He’s a mere spare tyre”, the lawmaker stated.
Idimogu also opined that it is
not impossible for a non-indigene, or a person of Igbo extraction, to become
governor of the state one day.
“It must be an understanding and
you must get the support of the owners of the land”, he stated.
Idimogu further stated that it is
not in doubt that non indigenes in Lagos have the number, but the owners of the
land must be respected, and “if they work with the Yorubas and the ruling
party, it’s not possible”.
He stated that the average Igbo
man is peaceful and law abiding, while the Yorubas are very accommodating,
hence the need to work together to achieve set objectives.
“It’s only natural for investors
in the state, many of whom are non-indigenes, and Igbos, to have an interest in
politics and whoever is elected to initiate and run policies which will affect
their businesses and investments. Hence the Igbos are taking interest in whom
gets into public offices.
“Going forward, there should be inclusiveness. The APC (All Progressives
Congress) should learn to pull others close and carry them along. “Igbos in
lagos have more investments here in lagos than in their home states, hence they
are interested in who occupies political offices”.
On the just concluded general
elections, Hon Idimogu said if not for the pockets of violence, it was a good
election, and that the will of the people triumphed. “There were issues in a
few places, but the percentage, less that 10%, is not enough to discredit the
entire process”, he argued.
“The election was good but not
good enough. It could have been better. There were reports of violence in some
places. But at the end of the day the people’s voice was herd and the majority
had their say”.
“The election was a lesson for
us, especially my party. Times are changing. The youths want to be part of
governance. The perception about the old politicians is not accurate.
“The coming of LP is an eye
opener for the old political parties, and elected public office holders to sit
up or they might be kicked out”, he said.
On violence
meted out to Igbos especially in Ejigbo and Okota, he advised his party, APC to
learn to ensure inclusiveness in governance even as he called for peace. “It is
a general thing that happened, it is not Lagos only, even in other states, but it
is not good enough like I earlier said, democracy should be government that
allows people to participate in an election, but because of fear of the
unknown, the true Lagosians, because when they saw what happened during the
presidential election they felt, if we keep quiet another party will likely
take over the state, but I am happy that we won, though there was a lot of
crises which for me was not good enough. Crisis will always be there in an
election, but when you look at it, you compare the percentage where this crisis
occur and the general performance. But to minimize these things, let’s talk
about inclusiveness, our party should learn inclusiveness, not just the Igbos,
even the Arewas, where they dominate, give them their person, where the Igbos
dominate, give them, South-South, give them, the bottom line is at the end of
the day, what matters is, my party won, but when you don’t give them and at the
same time you want them to come and vote for you, no, you cannot beat a child
and say he should not cry, it is difficult.
Speaking on
the threat by Eze Ndigbo of Ajao Estate, Eze Fred Nwajiagu, to bring the Indigenous
People of Biafra (IPOB) to come and
defend Ndigbo in Lagos over constant harassment, said “It is just senseless,
when there is a situation, right now the polity is hot, the recent governorship
election that happened on the 18th of last month have not settled,
which was almost like a cold war between the Igbos and the Yorubas, and you are
now adding fuel into fire by saying you will call IPOB, so are you saying if
there are issues in Lagos State, so we don’t have police in Lagos or even
Amotekun in Yoruba land, and you are talking about IPOB, on what basis? Is
Lagos State Imo State, Ebonyi or Anambra? How can somebody who is reasonable
talk like that? Well my Yoruba brothers and sisters, we are not part of it,
please we are not part of it at all, let him go and face the music, we don’t know
what he is saying, as far as we are concerned in Lagos here, we want to live in
peace with our Yoruba brothers and sisters, and do our businesses. A typical
Igbo man minds his business, but whoever that is careless in saying whatever he
likes should go and face the music, please absolve Igbos from this, but let
that man go and face the music, what has IPOB got to do with Lagos State? So
for me it is a very careless statement.
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