Sanusi in Lagos lands in fresh battle with southwest group

As the deposed emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is trying to adjust to a life outside of a palace, hostilities seem to boiling even in his chosen exile—Lagos.

But he is not alone yet.

Kaduna Gov. Nasir el-rufai has landed him cushy appointments in the states agency and university. And an Islamic human rights organization, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), is fighting off the new enemy—Apapo Oodua Koya—harassing the already frustrated ex-emir.

AOKOYA, a southwestern ethnic group, on Sunday asked the deposed Sanusi, who arrived Lagos on Saturday, to return to the north. The group said Sanusi came to establish a Fulani emirate in Lagos.

The threat, MURIC said, is mean, callous and inhuman.

According to s statement by the rights group director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, the AOKOYA position smacks of heartlessness, intolerance and gymnastic irredentism.

“Worse still, it stands in contradistinction to the concept of Omoluabi (meaning well trained in good morals) of which the Yoruba have been well known for ages,” he said.

“We remind those behind AOKOYA that Yorubas are equally scattered across Nigeria. They should be wary of actions and utterances capable of inciting other tribes against the Yoruba in other places. This is the time for Yoruba leaders to caution extremist groups in their midst.

Poiting at the laughability of AOKOYA claim, MURIC said  as an intellectually endowed race in this country, Yoruba does not need to appeal to primordial sentiments.

“They should therefore purge themselves of elements capable of whipping up irrational, illogical and unacceptable ideas.

“We also remind people in the South West in particular and across Nigeria in general that Section 41 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guarantees freedom of movement as well as freedom to reside in any part of the country.

“The section says, ‘Every citizen of Nigeria is entitled to move freely throughout Nigeria and to reside in any part thereof, and no citizen of Nigeria shall be expelled from Nigeria or refused entry thereto or exit therefrom.’

MURIC call on the government of Lagos  to provide adequate security and comfort for the former emir just as it has always done for all its citizens.

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