By BASHIR ADEFAKA
Amidst politically motivated threats creating fear in the hearts of voters ahead of Governorship and State House of Assembly Elections in Lagos State, South West Nigeria, armed hoodlums believed to be political thugs invaded the popular Akere Spare Parts Market, Ajegunle in the Apapa area of the state.
The thugs killed a security man they met on duty, despite his pleas not to attack the market, killed him and set the market ablaze.
Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, Governorship Candidate of Labour Party in Lagos State, visits the scene of early morning inferno that brought down Akere Spare Parts Market, Ajegunle, Apapa, Lagos in Wednesday March 8, 2023.
The fire incident occurred in the early hours of Wednesday March 8, 2023 precisely around 6:00am, and affected spare parts merchants have been commiserated with by President of the country, Muhammadu Buhari.
More spectacularly was the on-the-spot visit of Labour Party Governorship Candidate in the now rescheduled March 11 elections, Mr. Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, who went to the scene of incident and commiserated with the victims, whose goods and economy have been ruined in the unfortunate development.
It was a spark of excitements and restored hope as the Labour Party flag bearer arrived the scene and donated N15 million to the shop owners by way of showing compassion.
Our investigations revealed that the thugs invasions were linked with the ethnic profiling being spread by the supporters of certain influential politicians and their political ruling political party over 2023 elections in the state.
Our investigations’ outcome was justified by an eyewitness account by a lady, who confirmed that they were thugs from a particular ethnic group, who came to burn the market.
“When the thugs arrived, armed with guns and they met a security man in the market at about 6:00am, who begged them but they killed him and burned down the market,” she said while speaking in a video circulated on social media to alert the public at about immediate hour of the incident.
The DEFENDER reports that the thugs, apparently implementing earlier threats to deal with Igbo people who voted for Labour Party in the presidential election and that they would also be dealt with, if they repeat same voting pattern in the March 11 elections that have now been postponed.
Speaking on The Morning Show on Arise TV on Thursday, Dr. Reuben Abati described the timing of the attacks as premeditated abd calculated.
He said the hoodlums knew well that governorship election was going to happen 72 hours after and so they burned down the spare parts market to intimidate the Igbos, who are owners of shops destroyed in the early morning inferno.
By doing so, Abati believes allegedly political thugs did it to create fear in heart of the Igbos so they could choose either not to vote for Labour Party or stay away from polling units on the election day.
The Wednesday morning fire outbreak destroyed goods worth several millions of naira.
In a video shared online, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, Governorship Candidate of the Labour Party, who visited the scene, was filmed whispering to the man next to him.
The man then announced his donation saying, “He gave us N15 million naira” to mitigate the effect of the sad incident on the victims.
The cheers from the crowd drowned the rest of the announcement as the excited traders lifted Rhodes-Vivour in appreciation of his magnanimity.
Speaking to pressmen during the visit, Rhodes-Vivour said Lagos is welcoming to everyone and that there will be no discrimination against anybody in the state.
He went ahead to leave a word publicly that the ruined trading centre will be rebuilt when he comes to office as Governor of Lagos State.
