The Ohanaeze Ndigbo has dismissed, as false, the front-page report of a national newspaper of Friday, December 16, 2022, which claimed that Northerners were being killed in the South East.

In the report, the Coordinator of the Northern Consensus Forum, Dr. Auwal Aliyu, and others, were quoted to have “directed traders and truck drivers to avoid the South East.”

Aliyu alleged incessant killings of their members by outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), declaring three days warning strike as a result.

Ohanaeze, in a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Dr. Alex Ogbonnia, noted that the most disturbing part of the report is the false claim that “not less than 100 northerners were murdered in the South East last week.”

The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation noted that Aliyu has not been part of Northern leaders resident in the South East, and, as such, is not in a position to speak on the relationship between Northerners and the people of South East.

Ohanaeze said: “One begins to imagine the intendment of the purveyor of such false, mendacious and devilish alarm that “not less than 100 Northerners have been killed in the South East within last week.

“Apart from negative impact on the image of Nigeria, such unverified front page report is a breach of civic responsibilities expected of a national daily.

“Investigative journalism suggests that both the number of persons killed and locations where they were killed should have been indicated in the report.

“Unfortunately, Aliyu has inadvertently reduced the worth of a Nigerian to that of a chicken that could be slaughtered in hundreds within a week.

“The onus lies on Aliyu to locate the corpses of the said 100 persons.

“Evidently, such false alarm is a security threat capable of causing pandemonium across the country.

“Going further, is there any other group, among diverse groups in Nigeria that has come up with claim of killings by IPOB? There are questions that ordinarily will compel security agents to interrogate Aliyu, and action taken to serve as a deterrent to other false alarmists.”