Don’t link us with ‘Igbos Must Leave Lagos’ slogan — Indigenous group

Some Lagos indigenes under the auspices of De Renaissance Patriots have warned against linking them to the ‘Igbos must leave Lagos slogan’, saying such a call was shameful and irresponsible.

The group also condemned a report describing it as a far-right socio-cultural organization, saying such a claim is unfounded.

It emphasized that it would not back down in the mission to rescue indigenous Lagos from marginalization, lamenting that deliberate policies to dominate them had been implemented by non-natives ruling Lagos.

According to the group, the writer of the report was ill-informed about their antecedents, noting that facts were available to prove their position.

In a statement by its media office, the group insisted that the report was also wrong to have stated that their ideas conformed to the group instigating ethnic crisis in Lagos.

The statement reads: “We take an exception to the tag of far-right on De Renaissance Patriots Foundation. As a socio-cultural group of very senior eminent citizens of Nigeria that have been culturally and constitutionally blessed with indigeneship of Lagos State, we consider such uncharitable, wicked and unguarded use of vulgar language as unacceptable.

“That vitriolic name tag of the far-right on these very responsible citizens does not show sensibility on the members of De Renaissance Patriots Foundation. We are not far-right in ideological description.

“It is a vitriolic name identity which blemishes our moral, social, intellectual and political struggle in ideological terms as a right-wing association. We are not. The ruling elites in Lagos State, whom we suspect are doing the hatchet job, belong to a formative association of narcissists, who have seized the state for themselves, family, and friends.

“The writer got his historical information and its linkage with Obafemi Awolowo wrong. If he could not understand what the outcome of the Constitutional Conference in London in 1952 was, we would avail him the details at the appropriate time.

“It is a shameful and irresponsible act to link the faceless hashtag #IgbosMustLeaveLagos (Lagospedia) with De Renaissance Patriots Foundation, a highly responsible and respected socio-cultural organisation in Lagos. The organisation has, among its objectives, promotion of our social and cultural values, encouraging such factors that afford the citizens and, in particular, the natives of the state, to partake fully in the affairs of their own state.”