Make peace with Dokubo-Asari or forget sit-at-home, Ohanaeze tells Kanu

• Urges FG to extend N100b gesture to Biafra agitators
Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council (OYC) has tasked the leader of Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, to reconcile with Mujahid Dokubo-Asari or forget about the May 30 sit-at-home order to commemorate Biafra.

President of OYC, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, stated in Abakaliki yesterday that the council would tell the people to boycott the order, if IPOB did not carry the Southsouth agitators along.

Fifty-five-year-old Dokubo-Asari (formerly Melford Dokubo Goodhead Jr.) is an Ijaw political figure and freedom fighter in the Niger Delta.

“IPOB should make peace with Dokubo-Asari urgently, as the bond between the Southeast and Southsouth was being threatened. Since after the war, the old Eastern Region had been enjoying harmonious relationship with [Southsouth].

“So we advocate that IPOB should extend hand of friendship to Dokubo-Asari, as we will not allow any misunderstanding between Kanu and Dokubo-Asari to escalate. IPOB should use the May 30 event to mend fences with former Niger Delta agitators rather than sit at home,” OYC stated.

The group, in another breath, urged the federal government to extend the N100 billion gesture to the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and IPOB, as what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

Government had reportedly offered Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) N100 billion to halt kidnappings and banditry in the North.

OYC expressed surprise about the meeting between the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, and the leadership of MACBAN, adding that government would have invited Biafra agitators to balance it.

The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, had likened MACBAN to Afenifere and Ohanaeze socio-cultural groups.

OYC stated: “The leadership of OYC is surprised about the meeting between the federal government represented by Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, and the leadership of MACBAN, where a huge carrot was thrown to the herdsmen group to help stop kidnapping and tackle insecurity and clashes between herdsmen and farmers.

“That N100 billion mapped out for the group, as a new development of tackling youth restiveness, should be extended to the leadership of MASSOB and IPOB.”

The group claimed that about 167 Igbo people had fallen victim of armed herdsmen and bandits in the Northwest and Northeast in the last few weeks. “Tension is building up in the Southeast ahead of the May 30 Biafra remembrance day. Presidency should give Biafrans N100 billion also to avoid reprisal attacks.”

It also tasked Southeast governors to re-build the palace of HRM Eze Israel Kanu that was destroyed during the Python Dance military operations.

“Re-building the palace will go a long way in quenching a new form of rebellion that may spread across the states.”