For Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo may soon be facing his days in court, as the Lagos State Government seems to have washed its hands of his alleged attempt to incite violence against Igbo people living in the state during the March 18 governorship and House of Assembly elections.

Deputy Governor of the State, Obafemi Hamzat, said on Tuesday that the government neither sent the former state chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), no supported his actions, adding that if he was found guilty of breaking the law he must made to face the full weight of the law.

Hamzat, who stated this on Tuesday morning during a live appearance on Sunrise Daily, a breakfast programme on Channels Television, while fielding questions surrounding violence and alleged rigging during the governorship and state House of Assembly elections.

Though, MC Oluomo, currently the Chairman of the Lagos State Parks Management Committee, denied the allegation that Igbo residents must not come out to vote if they were not going to support the All Progressives Congress (APC), the mayhem unleashed against them on election day, are being linked to him directly and indirectly.

Hamzat, said: “Well, I am not calling for the arrest of anybody, I am not a police officer, I am not a prosecutor, but people will look at the evidence.

“And in the case of MC Oluomo he has actually come out to say that he was referring to a woman, who also come out to say that she has known MC Oluomo for years and that he was referring to her, so I don’t know the facts. But people should examine the facts and if in truth he has broken the law, he must pay for it.

“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. Atrocities were committed and people should pay for that.”

Hamzat said the state government has been accommodating all tribes and religions in the state, adding that Lagos is the only state that has other tribes in its state assembly.

Politicians and godfathers of electoral violence in Nigeria are so rich and powerful that they are virtually untouchables, while their footsoldiers are too low to apply for visas, was the argument with which Bolaji Akinyemi, former Minister of External Affairs, dismissed the threat of the Western nations on political violence in Nigeria.

It is reported that the United States and the United Kingdom is already compiling the names of the sponsors of the violence that characterised the 2023 general elections, especially that of the governorship and Houses of Assembly edition, where voters in many states were prevented from carrying out their civic duties by thugs, in some cases aided by officials of the state.

But, Akinyemi, a Professor of International Affairs and former Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), who shared his views while appearing as a guest on The Morning Show, a breakfast programme on Arise Television, told his host that while the patrons of the violence, had so much money stacked in the bank vaults of the same country threatening to sanction them, which served as a sort of insurance to insulate them from their bad behaviours, those they use to carry out the mayhem in the streets, would never apply for visas.

“Those who send these people to carry out the attacks and violence are so rich with so much money in these countries that they are untouchables. On the other hand, those who carry the guns, who carry the cutlasses, who carry the big sticks that we all saw on television don’t apply for visas in any case. They don’t go anywhere, they’re not interested in going anywhere. And that is why I just think this is all noise. It is not going to lead anywhere.”

Akinyemi, who was a member of the Justice Muhammed Uwais Electoral Reform Panel, set up by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, recalled how the body not only recommended the setting up of an Electoral Offences Commission (EOC) and Electoral Offences Tribunal (EOT), to deal with offenders, regretting that nothing came out of the move after the death of the former President, in 2010.

“Nothing every happened to those recommendations, because Yar’Adua died. Yar’Adua promised us, both at the beginning and when he was receiving our report that he would impliment that report without any amendment. But he was already ill as at the time he was receiving our report. Soon after, he died and President Goodluck Jonathan, did not have the heart to take on that report. Therefore, we have never tried electoral offenders and we have never punished them.”

The erudite scholar, however said that even without the Uwais failed intervention, Nigeria still had enough laws to tackle the development, even if not so strident or far-reaching enough, adding: “There are laws in our criminal code against hooliganism, against conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace and against assault.

“Do you want to tell me that unless it is election time, you can break somebody’s head and you’ll not be charged to court. Is that not assault? You don’t even an electoral tribunal to prosecute people who commit harm, grievous bodily harm. You don’t need that. So, why don’t we use it?”

Akinyemi, while expressing the hope that the police would bring those it claimed to have arrested during the period to trial as they promised, however warned that even if the Western nations never carried out their threats, there was the International Criminal Court (ICC), which had demonstrated its potency in handling such offences, especially in Africa.

Hear him: “The ICC, the International Criminal Court is there that deal with offences that border on hate-crime, sponsoring agitations against groups, not just against individuals. It has already been used in Cote D’Ivoire, and it has been used in Kenya. So, we should be careful of that – that even if we don’t prosecute these people and even if the United States and Great Britain don’t activate their visa sanctions, the ICC is there and there is sufficient evidence on paper and on video that can activate their own interest.”

“We are in control of the National Assembly. We have won the Presidency. We are going to win nothing less than 28 states at the end of this election.”

Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, after casting his vote on Saturday said that his party, the ruling All Progressives Congress will win not less than 28 states.

Lawan made the statement in response to questions from journalists at the Katuzu ward polling unit in Bade Local Government Area of Yobe State where he cast his vote during the Governorship and State House of Assembly elections.

The APC currently controls 21 of the 36 states and had an outright win in 12 states during the last Presidential vote.

Lawan said the APC and the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, as well as the ninth National Assembly, deserved some credit for the improvement witnessed in the country’s electoral process.

“The APC and the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari deserve credit, that we have allowed the process to be entirely determined by the guidelines and regulations of INEC.

“That we don’t use our incumbency factor to stop other political parties or opposition from winning in areas that are strong APC enclave”, he said.

He added, “The ninth National Assembly also deserves credit for passing a law that has made the process of our elections better.

“I think there is still room for improvement but kudos to the ninth National Assembly for producing an Electoral Act that is giving more roles to technology to decide and influence the outcome of our elections rather than some kind of fraud.”

Commenting on the electoral process, the Senate President said he was “happy that the BVAS is working here. I’m yet to hear any report about the failure of the process anywhere in my Local Government so far.”