Threat saga: Akiolu was quoted out of context – Atueyi

A Lagos-based lawyer and Industrialist, Bar. Chukwudi Atueyi, yesterday, gave vivid details of what transpired between Igbo leaders and Oba Akiolu of Lagos State which resulted into serious controversy.

The lawyer who regretted the uproar that accompanied the meeting said emphatically that Oba Akiolu’s statement was not directed at the whole Igbos in Lagos but jocularly to his Igbo friends that visited him.

According to him; “All the Eze Ndi Igbo honorary in Lagos went to pay HRM solidarity visit on Sunday and I was fortunate to be among those present at the said meeting. What the Oba said was fully and simply directed to only the Igbos present at the meeting who his majesty considers to be very close to him and should understand him well enough.

“You know when one talks to his very close friends and subjects, he tends to be very free with them, so he was being very free with those present at the meeting and wanted us to realize how serious and close he takes us and our votes, because he cannot imagine us giving him our words only to turn back and do the very opposite.

“ He did not force us to the meeting, we were the ones that went to him on solidarity visit, so it would be very evil of us to only go and deceive him there. He only jokingly (at least as it appeared to me then) warned the people present at the meeting who he considers his own people. The said warning that we are supposed to be very conversant with since we have all the “Ëze Ndi Igbo” present there, as that was not the first time we visited him, we are all already aware of the Yoruba culture and understood perfectly what he mean there was no specific place he referred to “all the Igbos in Lagos.

“He was only addressing the Igbos with him present there whom he considers his own people and he simply observed his culture which we all quite understood very well and this explains why there was applause and laughter at the end of his speech. We were expected to, thereafter, talk to our people in civilized manner to convince them and canvass for their votes if we truly believe we are capable of doing so.

“The tradition of lagoon water threat was directed only to those present there at the meeting jokingly as culture demands, though he appeared serious but we all understood it as a joke, that was why we all applauded him and made fun of it there.

“So I suspect serious politics at play here. I wouldn’t know who recorded the speech and decided to play politics with it. It is most unfair to his majesty to be portrayed in this manner and I think I owe it as a duty to speak up before things get out of hand. I strongly suspect that all this is being portrayed in this manner simply to curry votes for the Saturday’s coming election. This is capable of making the people who could have been initially indifferent in performing their civic responsibility to now go out of anger and vote against the Oba’s advise in order to dare the Oba. This is exactly what those twisting the facts want to achieve, but it is most unfair and morally wrong to castigate someone’s integrity on the altar of politics. “What happened on Sunday was pure culture at play before the very limited set of people present at the palace who understand the said culture well enough because the said people have always been very close to his majesty all along and pledged to always work with him. His majesty is not a small boy or so uninformed not to know that there is no way an entire tribe would vote one single political party 100%, it is impossible and the Oba knows this much, he is equally aware that there are Igbos who are card carrying members of Lagos APC and that there are others who even form part of the APC government of Lagos state.

“I think this propaganda is set out to achieve one thing only; to corrupt the mind of those Igbo people who would likely vote APC and even also the minds of those who are indifferent and make them to become very angry with the Oba and APC so much that they would call the bluff of his majesty and go out in anger to vote otherwise. This is simply to curry vote and I think this kind of politics is very bad and dangerous; it is capable of setting one ethnic group against the other.

“Now the people requesting for his majesty’s apology should realize that his majesty never spoke against the Igbos in the first place, I can vouch for that because I was present there and I am equally supposed to be very angry if he did, after all I am a full qualified Igbo son myself from Anambra state, but his majesty never did what he is being accused of. I think the official apology from the APC and clarification from the palace should have been enough to pacify whoever is still nursing anger.

“The audio version of the Oba’s pronouncement is being circulated to all the cell phones as sms messages and it is even on the net for all to listen to at the moment. This trend is dangerous and the reason is very obvious for everyone to see that this is pure politics at play here, so please let’s not twist the facts any further.