A petition has been launched against Nigerian singer Olawale Ashimi, popularly known as Brymo, for his comments about the Igbo on his Twitter page.
The singer had been criticized for claiming that an Igbo presidency would only be a “pipe dream” due to the turmoil over Biafra.
Following criticism from other celebrities and fans, Brymo stood by his position, adding that he did not regret his comments labeled “anti-igbo”.
In November 2022, the All Africa Music Award nominated Brymo in the ‘Songwriter of the Year’ category along with singers from other African countries.
While voting for the category is ongoing, some Nigerians have signed a petition to prevent the singer from winning the award.
Citing his “hateful messages” against the Igbo, the petition noted that not winning the award would send a strong message to the singer.
The petition, started by one Charles Ogundele, said: “Brymo recently posted a series of hateful messages on Twitter towards the Igbo tribe in Nigeria, even going so far as to retweet a tweet saying all Igbo are nonsense.
“In one of his tweets, he wrote ‘f*ck omo Igbo,’ which translates to ‘f*ck the Igbo people.’
“It is your actions that cause disunity and hatred in a multicultural nation that is Nigeria.
“Preventing him from winning the All Africa Music Award would send a strong message to him, and to people like him, that he cannot get away with such blatant ethnic intolerance.”
At the time of filing this report, the petition had more than 2,800 signatures.
