Many are surprised that MC Oluomo is walking free in the streets of Lagos even when his utterances have crossed the redline by violating the electoral act which prescribes offences for voter intimidation and hate speech.
Emmanuel Ukudolo l Friday, March 17, 2023
OJODU, Lagos, Nigeria – Alhaji Musiliu Akinsanya, Chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW has always operated in the motor parks with his men collectively known as agberos in Lagos.
The agberos are a group of gangs that have become a law to themselves and operated above the law in the motor parks and on the road. They operated to such as extent that they became a pain in the neck of successive government, obstructing and disrupting traffic flows in the process of collecting money that end up in their pockets. Officials of the traffic unit, the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA has had several clashes with these agberos, (MC Oluomo and his men) in the quest to restore sanity to the roads.
The agberos remains enemies of the state and the general public until 2022 when the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu decided to elevate somebody who ordinarily is an enemy of the state for acting against the laws of the state to executive position by making him Chairman of Lagos Parks Management Committee after proscribing the NURTW and the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria, RITEAN in Lagos.
By this singular act, Sanwo-Olu made members of the entire executive council of the Lagos State agberos. You may argue otherwise, but as the wise saying goes, “show me your friend and I will tell you who you are”. I am sure Sanwo-Olu who came into the public sector from the bank is very much aware of the proverbs, “birds of a feather flock together”. Sensible people don’t associate with any individuals whose values they abhor.
So, it is now obvious that governance in Lagos has been relegated to what happens in the motor parks, where thuggery and use of violence reign supreme. Therefore, violence is what the people of Lagos will get as long as Sanwo-Olu continues as governor of Lagos State.
As you know, habits are easy to form but difficult to break. This is what has played out in the case of the well known Lagos thug now in government called MC Oluomo, who has elevated thuggery into the realms of politics, issuing threats to those who will vote against his party, the ruling All Progressive Congress(APC).
He issued similar threats in his polling unit in Oshodi during the February 25, 2023 general elections, when he said that he will not allow anybody who will not vote APC to vote in the polling unit in his area. He made the threat and the police looked the other way, no arrest not even invitation by the Lagos State Police command to warn him to desist. Read MC Oluomo’s threats HERE https://starconnectmedia.com/mc-oluomo-on-rampage-ordering-snatching-diverting-inec-materials-in-lagos-see-video/
It is therefore not surprising that few hours to the governorship and house assembly election he has issued another threat in a viral video, warning those who will not vote APC to stay back at home. See video HERE. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp250QANn4K/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=
His statement is ominous. He is indirectly promising to visit mayhem and violence on those who will dare to vote against his party.
But he is not the first person to make that threat. He seems to have burrowed a leaf from the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu who said few years back before an election that anybody that votes against his party, the APC will get drown in the Lagos Lagoon.
MC Oluomo made the threats in the last election, the Nigeria Police looked the other way, his political party also looked the other way, even the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the father of anti-hate speech looked the other way. It has never been this bad in the nation’s political history. The best way to get votes is to do what the people you vow to serve want. That is the beauty of democracy.
Ironically, politicians who say they are democrats and would defend democracy with their lives are exhibiting coercion, which has been described as the undoing of the military government.
They seem to have forgotten that democracy remains the government of the people and the people have the right to choose who they want and not by force.
Former President of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan made this point very clear when he said, “If the people don’t want you go and sleep, if you are desperate go and do business. If you want to serve us you must be humble and you must not kill us before your serve us”, he said.
Many are surprised that MC Oluomo is walking free in the streets of Lagos even when his utterances have crossed the redline by violating the electoral act which prescribes offences for voter intimidation and hate speech.
Specifically, Section 128 of the Electoral Act states that “a person who directly or indirectly, by his or herself or by another person on his or her behalf, makes use of or threatens to make use of any force, violence or restrain; inflicts or threatens to inflict by his or herself or by any other person, any minor or serious injury, damage, harm or loss on/against a person in order to induce or compel that person to vote or refrain from voting, or on account of such person having voted or refrained from voting; by abduction, duress, or a fraudulent device or contrivance, impedes or prevents the free use of the vote by a voter or thereby compels, induces, or prevails on a voter to give or refrain from giving his vote, is guilty of the offence. This is so clear and the police has not seen any reason to reign in MC Oluomo.
In the absence of police to act, the only way the people of Lagos can say no to this unconstitutional and unlawful structure in Lagos is to go out enmass and for once put an end to MC Oluomo in Lagos by voting for the person, they feel will come to power and enforce law and order for an orderly and lawful society free of violence and intimidation.
NB: This is an opinion of the author not that of Starconnectmedia
