Comrade Mark Adebayo l Monday, Jan. 14, 2019
LAGOS, Nigeria – Tuesday 8th January, 2019 shall remain a bloody “Red Tuesday” in the annals of history of Lagos State as the All Progressive Congress, APC, flagged off its gubernatorial campaign in Ikeja with virulent, armed violent clashes between rival groups within the party leaving several dead, many fatally injured including journalists covering the event.
Report available to Lagos Liberation Movement, LLM showed that the rally which was scheduled to kick off at 10am did not start until 12pm, a delay which our sources disclosed was as a result of the party leadership trying to pacify aggrieved members.
As soon as the rally commenced while Governor Akinwunmi Ambode was addressing the gathering, a gun toting gang, wielding other destructive weapons stormed the venue shooting sporadically into a section of the crowd and air, as unwary party faithfuls who have come to witness the flag off scampered off to their respective homes.
Investigations revealed that the gun duel with sophisticated weapons was essentially between two rival gangs in the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, led by Musiliu Akinsanya M. C. Oluomo of Oshodi and Kunle Poly of Lagos Island . Oluomo was reportedly mortally injured.
However, LLM is shocked to receive the news that even when the Commissioner for Budget and Planning in the State wrote the Assembly last year for a date when the Governor would address the lawmakers and submit the 2019 Budget, the Speaker responded that it would be impossible to reconvene the House at any determinable date because members of the House are currently busy with their various political campaigns for offices in this year’s general elections!
At this juncture, it is highly imperative to set some records straight. First, both armed groups are covert hatchet jobs stormtroopers of the Lagos APC, funded and equipped through the party machinery. The gangs have been severally and notoriously used in the past to unleash violence on hapless Lagosians, terrorise voters and intimidate opposition.
When Crocodiles Eat their Own Eggs, What would they Not Do to the Flesh of a Lizard – Ola Rotimi
Thus, we are bold to state that just like Malcom X said after the killing of President Kennedy of the USA “The chicken has come to roost”.
The violence that the APC has been deploying to keep Lagos, its people and treasury at ransom and in bondage has finally been used against itself! The other twist of fate to this tragic event is that the same M. C. Oluomo was used by the leader of APC in the state, to terrorise some party members during the last party primaries before adopting a palace coup to willy-nilly accept with fait-accompli that the incumbent governor shall not be running for second term but rather support a co-contestant, anointed candidate of the Godfather party, Babajide Olushola Sanwo Olu. Ironically, it was while Governor Ambode was addressing the rally that the gun shooting which disrupted the campaign started. Critical, heuristic questions begging for answers include wondering whether this was a mere coincidence, or a veil attempted assassination.
A philosopher once guided humanity that “event happen twice in history, first as a farce, the other as a tragedy”. Nigerian is replete with instances of the Lagos type of political class instigated, fascist thugs armed belligerent. We are apt to recall the escapades of Adebayo Success in Lagos in the Second Republic and that of Akinsola Tokyo or Sunday Igboho in our contemporary period.
Late Saka Saula of NURTW was earlier used by this same ruling party in the state. The big question is when would these carnages stop? More importantly, if the magnitude of violence unleashed at the APC rally can be deployed against each other in the same party, what would happen to opposition parties as the election draws nearer? This is a manifest and potent danger to our yet to be fully entrenched democracy. It is the historic and patriotic duty of all well-meaning Nigerians and Lagosians to rise up and condemn this violent, armed clashes which is symptomatic of subtle rape of democracy, if we desire peace and development in our land.
No doubt with the rates of implosion in the ruling party across board, we are clear that the sceptre of social revolution looms over the country and Lagos is usually the base hot template.
Majority of our people are not only alienated or disenchanted with the ruling class rudderless waste of human and material potentials of the nation particularly Lagos.There is abject poverty, neglect, wants and diseases in the midst of opulence for a few.
LLM strongly calls on all Lagosians never to lose hope but to get better organised. Global history validates that when hapless people clash with armed vagabonds in power, the later laugh first while the former laugh last. We warn that in the struggle to liberate Lagos, there is no innocent bystanders because cross fire of bullets has no respect for unwary innocent bystanders. We must be vigilant, organised to embrace the looming revolution to free Lagos.
A word is enough for the wise! wise
A Word Is Enough For The Wise !
SIGNED BY
Comrade Mark Adebayo (Convener)
