Lagos: Awori indigenes lament marginalisation in Kosofe

Worried by several years of marginalisation of Awori indigenes in Kosofe Local Government, a group, Awori Indigenous Forum (AIF), has made a passionate call to the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for equal opportunities for Awori indigenes in the allocation of political positions in the local government.

At a press conference held, on Wednesday, at the Awori Town Hall in Oregun, Ikeja, a leader of the group, Mr. Akintola Kamorudeen Balogun, lamented that that since the local government was carved out of Shomolu Local Government some twenty years ago, no Awori son or daughter had held a meaningful position in Kosofe both at state and federal level.

He noted that several meetings held with the former governor of the state, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who promised to look into their demands, had not yielded any result.

The group, however, warned that the peaceful and accommodating nature of its people should not be taken for granted, adding that its people would no longer sit idly and be cheated out of their right to govern themselves, and reiterated that it was their turn at governance in the local government ahead of the forthcoming local government elections in the state.

According to him “several attempt have been made to call the attention of stakeholders to this issue but all our efforts to correct this anomaly is yet to yield a positive result.

“We have staged a peaceful protest to our leader, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and we were advised and assured that our case will be looked into, but it is sad that so many years after, nothing is being done.”

“We decry the deprivation of the indigenes of Awori their political right in spite of all our effort in ensuring that our voices are heard and what rightly belong to us be given to us, we have supported past government with our resources and have always followed the leaders of the party irrespective of the marginalization, but, enough is enough, it is our turn to pilot the affairs of our people,” he said.

He however appealed to the national leader of the party to intervene before the situation get out of control.

Also speaking a leader in community Otunba Tasiru Yaya Bankole, Baale of Owode Onirin stressed that there was no justification for the continuous marginalization of Awori people in the political affairs in Lagos adding that Aworis were now educated and have what it takes to govern themselves

According to him, “What is happening here is bad, over the last twenty years we have been shortchanged in Kosofe Local Government, we are the original owner of Lagos, can you imagine that outsiders have now taken over, we want our leader to please resolve this issue because we have done everything possible and all earlier promises have failed,” he said.