Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, the topmost Igbo socio-cultural organization, has strongly condemned the persistent and secret killing of Biafra activists and members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB by Nigeria security agents.
Ohaneze said the daily use of what the police in Abia state called, "minimal casualties" to extrajudicially eliminate IPOB members "is heinous, savage, unethical, antithetical to democratic norms and, of course, far from the solution."
The socio-cultural group lamented that its repeated advice for a political solution to settle the IPOB agitation has gone unheeded by President Mohammadu Buhari, and again told the President to call heads of security agencies to order, in a statement signed by the Ohanaeze Publicity Secretary, Dr. Alex Ogbonnia.
Ohanaeze was reacting to the recent shooting to death of 5 unarmed IPOB protesters by security agents at Osusu, Aba, Abia state.
The IPOB was peacefully protesting the continuing detention of their leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu by the federal government after several Courts discharged and acquitted him of any wrongdoing.
Ohanaeze also spoke against what it viewed as the selective profiling of IPOB by Nigeria's chief of Army staff, Gen. Faruk Yahaya, who had a few days after the killings warned IPOB not to threaten Nigeria's integrity.
It further decried the Police's account of the killings which conflicts with Ohanaeze findings as well as videos posted online by residents and witnesses.
Ohanaeze stated that the position of the IPOB, on the subject of Igbo persecution in Nigeria and the need for Igbo freedom is shared by other ethnic organizations like PANDEF, the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, as well as Ohanaeze, the only difference being the methodology of achieving the needed freedom.
The statement read in part, “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 is quoted to have warned that ‘the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Eastern Security Network, ESN, or any other group or individuals have no constitutional backing to threaten Nigeria’s integrity.’”
“Yahaya emphasized that ‘elections or no elections, neither IPOB, ESN nor any other group or individuals should threaten the integrity of this Nation as enshrined in the Constitution of Nigeria. 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.
“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 the majority of the hoodlums scampered for safety.
“Ohanaeze’s 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.’”
“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 centers of power.
“For the avoidance of doubts, the IPOB philosophy is in line with the position of Chief E K Clark, the Leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum and the Leader of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, ‘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.”‘
“IPOB insists that instead of the continued indignities to the Igbo, they should be allowed to go.
“In other words, while the Ohanaeze Ndigbo on one hand and the IPOB on the other converge on the dissatisfaction with the Igbo mistreatment in Nigeria, the divergence is on the approach or methodology for a change.”
” The Ohanaeze Ndigbo have been looking forward to a day like today when in collaboration and coalition with other ethnic nationalities, eminent Nigerians of goodwill, the youth, and indeed all the progressive minds, will through a social change dynamic and democratic process entrench good governance in Nigeria."
The statement continued, “We believe that with good leadership, Nigeria has sufficient human and natural resources that will stimulate upscale prosperity and sustainable economic development for the good of everybody in the country.
“Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has often reiterated that a search for peace, progress, and development in Nigeria will remain elusive or unachievable without justice and equity.
"Nigeria at the moment is at a critical juncture with two major options: truth and progress on one hand or falsity and backwardness, poverty and political travails on the other.
“Finally, 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 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, GCFR, 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 selective profiling is enough considering the hundreds of lives that have been neutralized through the Bala concept of minimal casualties, ” Ohanaeze declared.
The Killings Will Be Avenged.
Reacting to the killings, the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, described the act as a grave atrocity that would not go unavenged.
A statement by IPOB Media andPublicity Secretary, Emma Powerful said 50 IPOB protesters were killed, and many others either forcefully disappeared, abducted, or inflicted with gun injuries by the Nigerian security agents during the IPOB peaceful protest to demand the unconditional release of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu who was long pronounced discharged and acquitted by the Appeal Court.
According to the statement: “The brutal murder of 50 protesters, forceful disappearances, and abduction of many, and gun injury to many more peaceful Biafran protesters for demanding the unconditional release of Kanu as Appeal Court has pronounced, that he has been discharged and acquitted is a grave atrocity.
“The supreme leader of IPOB is manhandled by the Nigerian government and its security agents in the DSS custody in Abuja. On Black Friday, March 31, 2023, many of our people were murdered, and we shall duly recognize their sacrifice when Biafra history is written.
"The continuous abduction and massacring of unarmed Biafrans by Nigeria terrorist security agencies shall not go unavenged at the appointed time. He who kills by the sword should be ready to die by the sword.”
Politics and Opinion.
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