•Renews call for a political solution
The apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, has warned security agencies against the silent killing of Biafra agitators and members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.
Ohanaeze which gave the warning in a strong-worded statement said injustice, marginalization, and Igbophobia might consume Nigeria if unchecked.
The warning is coming on the heels of Friday’s killing of IPOB members at a peaceful protest in Aba.
The unarmed Biafra agitators were demanding the release of Nnamdi Kanu when security operatives allegedly opened fire on them, killing no fewer than five of them.
Ohanaeze in the statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Dr. Alex Ogbonnia, strongly condemned the action and urged President Muhammadu Buhari to call heads of security agencies to order.
Ohanaeze said that both the apex Igbo body and IPOB, are on the same page that Ndigbo are being unjustly persecuted in Nigeria, and need freedom, but only differ on the mode of achieving the freedom.
The statement frowned at a recent comment credited to the Chief of Army Staff, where he warned that IPOB, ESN, or any group threatening the unity of Nigeria might be bargaining for more than it could chew.
The statement read in part: “While we are still in one-week mourning and sackcloth for the five boys or the “minimal casualty” by Mustapha Mohammed Bala boys at Aba during a peaceful protest for the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, another Yakub Yahaya is using his office to issue a profiling threat to the IPOB.
“Ohanaeze Ndigbo has repeatedly called for a political solution in resolving the IPOB matter and that the adoption of extra-judicial minimal casualties daily against the IPOB by the Nigerian security operatives is heinous, savage, unethical, antithetical to democratic norms and, of course, far from the solution.
“Even when the previous calls on the Presidency appear to have fallen on deaf ears, we still remind President Muhammadu Buhari, and the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces to rein in the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Yakub Yahaya from his selective threat to the IPOB.
” Such a selective profiling is enough considering the hundreds of lives have been neutralized through the Bala concept of minimal casualties.”
Ohanaeze expressed rage over the use of brute force against IPOB members who are only calling for a redress of the obvious oppression against the Igbo.
The statement entitled: ’Enough Is Enough’, read: “The attention of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has been drawn to the remarks made by the Chief of Army Staff of the Nigerian Army, Lt. Gen. Faruk Yahaya, with the heading: “Don’t threaten Nigeria’s integrity – COAS warns IPOB, ESN.
“Yahaya issued the warning at an Army event in Abuja, on Monday, April 3, 2023.
On Friday, March 31, 2023, five members of the IPOB were shot dead in Osusu, Aba, Abia State, while they were on a procession across Aba.
“Confirming the incident, the Abia State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mustapha Mohammed Bala, a Katsina-born, well-educated police officer claimed that “On 31/03/2023 at about 11.45hours, policemen on confidence building patrol/show of force within Aba metropolis came under attack by the proscribed IPOB/ESN members.
” According to him “they were armed with petrol bombs, machetes, battle axes, and other dangerous weapons. Bala added that “the attack was repelled by the Police operatives with minimal casualties while a majority of the hoodlums scampered for safety.
“Ohanaeze findings revealed that “some residents, armed with video evidence, informed that the group was protesting peacefully against the continued detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, without disturbance before they were shot at.
” It is most appalling that Bala should refer to the IPOB men as “hoodlums” and most unconscionable to view the death of five IPOB members as “minimal casualties”.
Ohanaeze noted that former President Olusegun Obasanjo was speaking recently at the first anniversary celebration of the government of Professor Chukwuma Soludo, warned against the “dangers of the conspiracy against the Igbo of the Southeast.
“Obasanjo described the phenomenon as Igbophobia”, Ohanaeze said.
” Igbophobia will not mean well for the unity and development of the country”, Ohanaeze quoted Obasanjo as saying.
According to Ohanaeze, the root of Nigeria’s upheavals is traceable to Igbophobia.
“Every knowledgeable Nigerian knows that the current political travails in Nigeria are rooted in Igbophobia. The backwardness and poverty that have become the character of Nigeria are the manifestations of Igbophobia or the orchestrated marginalization and alienation of the Igbo from the centres of power.
“For the avoidance of doubts, the IPOB philosophy is in line with the position of E K Clark, the Leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) and the Leader of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF), “that the former military Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, should have allowed the Igbo to secede at the outset of the civil war in 1966.
“And that ‘instead of continued mistreatment of the Igbo in Nigeria, they should be allowed to go.
“The Elder statesman made the remarks on May 3, 2022, during an interview on Arise TV, as part of his advocacy for the President of Nigeria to be zoned to the Southeast.
“Clark stressed the “need for the region to be treated with a sense of belonging and called for political parties, especially the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, to zone their presidential tickets to candidates from the South-East.
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