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The Lagos governorship election will hold on Saturday, March 18, 2023.
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On Wednesday, Oba Elegushi announced that his kingdom’s annual Oro rites will run through to the morning of election day.
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While critics alleged that the rites will affect voters, the monarch clarified that movement is only restricted in the midnight.
Eko Hot Blog reports that the traditional ruler of the Ikate-Elegushi Kingdom, Saheed Ademola (Kusenla III), has clarified the declaration of the Oro rites in the kingdom.
Earlier on Wednesday, the kingdom released a memo that declared that there would be a three-day rite from midnight to 5:30 a.m. on each day, from Wednesday to Saturday, the day set aside for governorship and state assembly elections.
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The memo, which was issued to the residents of Ikate-Elegushi, warned non-indigenes and women to stay away.
The monarch also said there would be a restriction of movement to perform the Oro rites in the community from Wednesday to Saturday.
The declaration was swiftly met with condemnation on social media as some users alleged there was a political motive for the curfew which will further disenfranchise women and non-indigenes from voting on election day.
However, Temitope Oyefeso, the special assistant on media affairs to the Ikate Kingdom’s monarch, reacted to the criticisms, saying the kingdom did not ask people to sit at home during the day.
He said the curfew only affects movement from midnight to morning.
“Yes, there is an Oro rite happening in the Ikate kingdom. So, the Elegushi community council decided that residents and visitors should be in their houses from midnight to morning on Wednesday to Saturday,” Oyefeso told People’s Gazette.
“We are not saying people should sit at home during the day like they have in other places.
“Elections are held during the day, and by morning we will open the roads for people to come. It is a traditional rite. But unfortunately, it has come at this time. It is an annual event, and this is not the first time. We are not disrupting any process.”
The monarch spokesperson noted that the Oro rite will bring peace to the community, adding that it happens in all communities within Lagos.
Oyefeso explained that non-indigenes registered to vote in Elegushi will partake in the voting process, reiterating that “they will not leave the house to vote by 2:00 a.m., so they ought to be in their house.”
“Voting starts by 8:00 a.m., and there is a police curfew for midnight on election day. We are not doing anything different from what the police have done. It will just commence two days earlier,” he said.
“People should stop speculating rumours or being mischievous about Oro rites; it is not interfering with the process of the election. Residents can move about from morning till 11:30 p.m.”
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Meanwhile, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, alongside Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party, Funso Doherty of the Africa Democratic Congress, and Abdulazeez Adediran of the Peoples Democratic Party, are among the candidates contesting the governorship election.
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