Lagos monarch, Oba Rilwan Babatunde Akiolu has sent a note of warning to desperate politicians that might be thinking of taking over the state by illegitimate means, asserting that no one could capture Lagos. Oba Akiolu, who also goes by the designation, Olowo Eko (Owner of Lagos), recalled that certain politicians had once boasted that they would take over Lagos by force, noting that such people were vehemently resisted and eventually humiliated.
He said he was forced out of the Nigerian Police Force as an Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) in 2002 after 32 years in service even as he was denied promotion by the federal authorities at that time. We were forced out through intrigues.
They believed I was the father of the then Alliance
for Democracy (AD) and the then Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu. They forgot
that Bola Tinubu is my relation and, as they say, blood is thicker than
water. But for God and the prayers of well-meaning people in this
country, where we are in Lagos today, we wouldn't have got there. But
for God and
for people like Bola Tinubu, we wouldn't have got to where we are in
Lagos. And I say this anywhere.
Insisting that
no one would be allowed to take over Lagos by force, the monarch
stated will never compromise Lagos for anybody. It will never
happen. God Almighty Allah and my ancestors will never allow it to
happen. And no matter what anybody is planning in future, only a lawful,
democratically elected governor will rule Lagos.
Nobody, even if it will cost us the last drop of our
blood, I repeat it, nobody can take Lagos away illegally from Lagosians and I mean it. Ninety per cent of all the well-to-do people in this
country made their
money from Lagos. When they came, they were laborers staying under
Carter Bridge. But in just 10, 20 years, you see them putting up
high-rise buildings. And Lagos people don't discriminate against
anybody. But for anybody to say ˜I will capture Lagos, I will take
Lagos, God forbid that. Only a democratically-elected governor, a
governor elected by popular votes, will always rule Lagos. I don't
take sides with anybody. But I'm for the well being of Lagos and its
people.
The monarch said his traducers in the police also
accused him of being an ambitious prince who was interested in becoming
the Oba of Lagos. But it is only a bastard-prince that would not
aspire to sit on the throne of his fore-fathers. Anybody that is not
ambitious in life is
as good as dead, he said. The royal father said he would spend his
tenth coronation anniversary in the Holy Land of Mecca to offer thanks
to God.
In 1988, I was in Mecca with the
former Inspector-General of Police, Tafa Balogun. Then, everybody was
praying to Almighty Allah, asking for what they wanted. What I, then
Prince Akiolu, said at that time was that, God, I'm inside the
Kaaba now.
Please inherit the throne of my forefathers for me.
And God heard it. I don know what police retirement had to do
with a prince wanting
to be Oba of Lagos. But you see how God works? I left the service in
March, 2002. A year and two months later, I was crowned the Oba of
Lagos. So I am going to Mecca to thank Almighty Allah.
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