The Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, on Tuesday addressed the allegations of ethnic profiling and voter intimidation against Musiliu Akinsanya better known as MC Oluomo.
MC Oluomo had in the build up to the March 18 governorship elections, appeared in a viral video allegedly cautioning Igbo voters who would not cast their ballots for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to stay home.
After criticism, MC Oluomo, who is also the Chairman of the Lagos State Parks Management Committee, made an attempt to clear things up, saying he spoke in a playful tone and was addressing a particular woman called “Iya Chukwudi”, not the Igbo in Lagos.
Reacting while appearing on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, Hamzat, said MC Oluomo must face the music if found guilty of the allegations leveled against him.
“I’m not calling for the arrest of anybody. I’m not a police officer; I’m not a prosecutor. People will look at the evidence.
“In the case of MC Oluomo, he has come out to say that he was actually referring to one woman that is Mama Chinedu, or something like that. There’s a video that shows that and that woman said, ‘He was talking to me and we’ve been friends or he’s been my customer for years.’
“She said that he was talking to her. So, I don’t know the facts, but people should examine the facts and if in truth he has broken the law, of course, he must pay for it. It’s as simple as ABC.”
“But my point which I want to make is that we all diminish this country when we actually exaggerate what happens. We have an election where you have this number of polling units and you have less than 1 per cent that have a problem and we now make it look like that 1 per cent is more important than the 99 per cent.
“I think that it is just outrageous and we should not diminish our country by saying the election is bad. No, this was a great election.”
Speaking further on the violence recorded and voter suppression in some parts of the state, which prompted LP to reject the results.
Hamzat described the opposition as “bad losers” for not accepting the outcome of the poll.
“It sounds very nice that the people of Lagos have decided to renew our mandate, and I have listened to all sorts of commentaries about this election and I think it is very unkind. Very unkind to Nigerians. Lagos has 13,325 polling units,” the deputy governor said.
“Alimosho, for example, has 1,545. But violence was recorded in only three out of them. In the whole of Lagos, only 349 polling units had issues with violence out of 13,325. So if you figure that out, that’s like one percent. You do not need 100 percent in order to get A.
“But unfortunately, people tend to be bad losers, instead of re-examining what happened and how to get better.”