Oro festival: Politics reduced traditional rulers to ballot snatchers

The Labour Party governorship candidate in the recently concluded gubernatorial election in Lagos State, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour has accused some traditional rulers in the state of reducing themselves to ballot snatchers.

The LP candidate stated this in a tweet on Thursday while reacting to a video clip of residents running away from Oro masquerades.

Recall that prior to the conduct of the March 18 elections, reports emerged that some traditional rulers fixed the Oro festival on election day to scare strangers from participating in the poll.

The traditional rulers, however, debunked the report saying Oro was only meant to take place at night.

But in his tweet, Rhodes-Vivour claimed that politics made some traditional rulers fix the festival in the daytime, stressing that they have been reduced to ballot snatchers.

He wrote: “I have respect for our traditional institutions and our culture. It is politics and politicians that have denigrated our traditional institutions.

“It is politics that would make kings do ORO during the DAY! It is politics that would reduce a baale to a ballot snatcher #ourlagos.”