Thoroughly embarrassed by the reaction to the recent forced arrest and nocturnal expulsion of some Nigerian citizens to Onitsha, Anambra State, the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola is said to be approaching his colleagues and friends from the South Eastern part of the country discreetly to help him douse the tension and likely effects the action will have on his political career. The governor is also alleged to have assembled some people he considered as capable of influencing public opinion in the area to the Government House, Alausa and lobbied them with money to assist in dousing the tension arising from his action.
An elder from the Eastern parts who had a good knowledge of the embattled governor’s scheming on the vexed matter however told Africanewscircle.com on phone from Lagos that it was too late to help the governor adding that those identified as trying to help him wriggle out of the self-imposed difficulty will likely carry the resultant baggage with him over time. His words:
“He even invited them to Alausa and are sharing money. They are bribing them to stop commenting on the incident. Fashola is worried and he even contacted, the Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi to help end the altercation. A member of CAN who is Igbo was almost lynched at Maza Maza and they have declared Fashola’s pointsman, Joe Igbokwe a persono non grati and banned him from all Igbo assembly in Lagos.”
“I believe the governor invited this controversy to himself. He should not wish that the cup he filled for himself will pass him bye like that only to turn round to organize more road shows as the one in Osun. Such antics cannot help him. Some of the people deported by Fashola were law abiding, gainfully employed citizens going about their business. Many of them were no vagrants as claimed. One of the victims was picked up from his house and kept in custody at Ikorodu before deportation. Four buses were involved in the deportation and that shows that they didn’t deport 14 people as they claimed in the after-thought. Why deport Igbos and non-Igbos to Onitsha? Why drop those you arrested and detained arbitrarily in the dead of the night at the Onitsha bridge head and then organise a roadshow, a jamboree at the National Youth Development Centre, Ode-Omu just as the dust you raised in Onitsha is tick in the air. Who are you fooling?”
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