A former deputy governor of Lagos State, Sinatu Ojikutu has made a u-turn after she said that she would renounce her Nigerian citizenship if Bola Tinubu is sworn in as president.
Ojikutu had announced in April that her life was in danger, adding that she did not know what she did for Tinubu to single her out for maltreatment.
Asked why she was afraid of Tinubu, she told Punch in an interview that she met some friends close to Tinubu and asked them to help get the state government to pay her entitlement but that one of them returned to her alleging that Tinubu asked “Is she still around?”
Ojikutu said when she talked about renouncing her citizenship, she was advised against it.
“This is where another aspect came in. Renouncing now is another problem because a Muslim scholar told me that I misread the Quran. He asked me whether Prophet Mohammed (SAW) renounced his affiliation with Mecca despite the death threat he got. So, I cannot reject Nigeria. He said even if I said I wanted to migrate, there were conditions attached to it.
“I had already taken a step about the country whose citizenship I will take but I was advised by people not to contemplate going anywhere and these are people whose pieces of advice I cannot reject.
“The Muslim community approached me. Some said I should maybe continue to keep quiet. But what I keep telling them is that to the best of my knowledge, I didn’t offend him (Tinubu) to the level that it became a death threat,” she said.
Ojikutu alleged that the genesis of her problem with Tinubu was when she was made a commissioner representing Lagos State at the Federal Character Commission, alleging that her husband was poisoned because of it.
“My husband was poisoned by the food he took at a club. I warned him when he was relating with people who were Tinubu’s beneficiaries and he was always saying Lagos deserved better in terms of the management of the office (of the governor),” she said.