• Seek senator’s apology, recall from Senate
The Leadership Orientation and Basic Rights Advocacy Centre (LOBRAC) has condemned the endless attacks, injustices, skewed appointments and other forms of marginalisation against Ndigbo, urging President Muhammadu Buhari to rise to his responsibility to protect and give a sense of belonging to all ethnic groups, including Ndigbo.
President of the group, Stanley Okafor, a rights activist, who made this view in a paper he presented at a one-day conference organised by LOBRAC with the theme: “Nigeria and its Security Challenges” in Awka, Anambra State, also urged the President to ensure Nigeria remains one where peace exists among the people through the creation of an adequate atmosphere to sit down and negotiate with secessionist groups, including Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
He said that the President must have the will to talk about Biafra, stressing: “Biafra is a history of people of the eastern part of Nigeria and you cannot wish it away. You cannot successfully clean up Biafra from the heart of any Igbo. It is part of our history and we have a right to keep its light burning.
The human rights activist expressed dismay that the authorities had not done enough to contain the alarming endless worsening insecurity in Nigeria in the context of kidnapping, banditry, Boko Haram attackers, herders-farmers clashes and other forms of insurgencies.
MEANWHILE, the Movement for Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has condemned what it totally described as “the unprovoked insult and abuse” against the governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, by one Senator Smart Adeyemi on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday.
In a statement made available to The Guardian in Awka, Anambra State, yesterday, credited to MASSOB’s leader, Uchenna Madu, the group said that the seeming abuse was not the first time by Adeyemi and his alleged sponsors.
MASSOB, therefore, urged Adeyemi to publicly apologise to the governor and Ndigbo in general or risk sanctions, including being declared persona non grata in all parts of Igboland.
IN the same vein, the senator, representing Abia Central, Chief Theodore Orji, said he was irked by the insults his fellow Smart Adeyemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) heaped on Ikpeazu on the floor of the Senate.
He said that Adeyemi’s reported outbursts against Ikpeazu were more worrisome because they (outbursts) were unprovoked when the matter on the discussion had nothing to do with Ikpeazu.
He demanded that Adeyemi, without delay, should tender a well-worded apology to Ikpeazu and the people of Abia.
ALSO, Abia youths, under the aegis of Abia State Youth Association, has resolved to undertake a mass protest to the National Assembly against Adeyemi’s unprovoked verbal attack on Ikpeazu.
Leader of the association, Imaga Eke Imaga, told The Guardian that only timely acceptable remorseful apology by the senator to Ikpeazu, Abia people, national and state lawmakers would assuage them.
IN the meantime, the Special Assistant to Governor Ikpeazu on Students Affairs, Chibuzo Ndom, in his submission on behalf of Abia students, said the students “were rather disappointed at the wanton swipe one Senator Smart Adeyemi took on our governor during the Senate plenary on Tuesday, noting that his outbursts deviated from the Chamber’s rules.
