Voter intimidation: MC Oluomo must pay if he truly broke the law, says Obafemi Hamzat

Obafemi Hamzat, deputy governor of Lagos, says Musiliu Akinsanya, chairman of the Lagos parks and garages, should be made to “pay” if he “broke the law” during the elections.

On the eve of the Lagos gubernatorial election, Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo, was spotted in a viral video saying that Igbo people who would not vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC) should stay at home.

However, MC Oluomo recanted his comment, saying it was a playful remark addressed to his friend, “Iya Chukwudi”, adding that he was not referring to Igbo people residing in Lagos.

In spite of his clarification, the remark elicited criticism on and off social media, with many Nigerians asking security operatives to arrest him.

Reacting to the situation, Hamzat said the case can be re-examined and justice should be served if there was a violation.

The Lagos deputy governor spoke in a chat with Channels TV on Tuesday.

“In the case of MC Oluomo, he has come out to say that he was referring to one Mama Chinedu or something. And there is a video of the woman saying he was talking to her and MC has been her customer for years,” he said.

“So I do not know the facts. But people should re-examine the facts and if he had truly broken the law, then of course, he must pay for it.”

‘VIOLENCE RECORDED IN ONE PERCENT OF POLLING UNITS’

APC won the Lagos governorship election with 762,134 votes while the Labour Party (LP) came second with 312,329 votes, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was in third place with 62,449 votes.

However, there were reports of violence and voter suppression in some parts of the state, which prompted LP to reject the results.

Addressing the situation, Hamzat described the opposition as “bad losers” for not accepting the outcome of the poll.

He added that violence only happened in “one percent” of polling units in Lagos and “you do not need 100 percent in order to get A”.

“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.”