[FASHOLA’S DEPORTATION OF IGBOS] --------------------------- The anger expressed by many Igbos and other well-meaning Nigerians over the deportation of 72 Igbos from Lagos State to Onitsha, Anambra State, at the dead of night by officials of Lagos State government is highly justified. Anambra State governor, Mr. Peter Obi, who could no longer bear the illegal and forceful removal of some Nigerians from their state of domicile to their assumed state of origin, has taken the matter to the presidency stressing that Fashola’s action is a violation of the rights of these citizens to reside in any part of the country as guaranteed in the extant 1999 Constitution. Similarly, prominent Igbo leaders and groups have equally condemned the action and demanded an unreserved apology from Ikeja. Factional leader of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Dr. Frederick Fasehun, and human rights lawyer, Bamidele Aturu, have also lampooned Fashola for taking such action. They even called for the prosecution of the state government over the illegality and impunity directed at the poor from a section of the country. Lagos PDP is angry that the ACN-led government can inflict such injury on fellow Nigerian citizens. This is the second time that officials of Lagos State’s Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) will be visiting such inhumanity to people from the South-East. A similar incident was carried out September last year at the same ungodly hour and in the same circumstances when 100 people of South-East origin were dumped at Upper Iweka, Onitsha. Later checks by Anambra State government revealed that most of the victims were not from the state. There is no doubt that the recent 72 people deported from Lagos might not be indigenes of Anambra State. For the sake of clarity, the South-East has five states. Indigenes from these states should not be treated as if all of them are from Anambra State as Lagos action has suggested. This oversight must have infuriated Awka the more and probably led to the governor bringing the matter to the presidency. No matter what some people might be saying to the contrary to justify a bad job Lagos has executed, it is my considered opinion that the action is bad in all its ramifications. It does not really matter whether Lagos has deported people from other tribes including the Yorubas and Hausas. If the provisions of the 1999 Constitution are anything to go by, nobody, no state governor has the right and power to deport Nigerian citizens from their state of abode. Every citizen including beggars should be taken care of by the government and not be deported because somebody wants to make a mega city out of Lagos.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 16:02:31 +0000
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