Ohanaeze, MASSOB fault NEF’s warning against attack on northerners in South

Ohanaeze Ndigbo and the Movement for Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), yesterday, faulted leader of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Prof. Ango Abdullahi for issuing a fresh warning against fresh attacks on northerners resident in the South.

The groups urged Abdullahi and other northern elders to exercise caution in their utterances to avoid creating crisis in the country.

Abdullahi had at a meeting with representatives of northern groups in the Southeast in Enugu, warned that the attack on northerners resident in the zone during the #EndSARS protests was unprovoked and should not be repeated.

Spokesperson of NEF, Dr. Hakeem Ahmed, said northerners had the right to reside in any part of the country, and as such, must not be attacked under any guise.

“We visited Enugu because it is the capital of the Southeast. We will meet with the governor and we know he will relate our message to his colleagues. We are here to hear your grievances and ensure that no attack happens again, because our people welcome other people from other parts of the country,” he stated.

But in a swift reaction, President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Nnia Nwodo, challenged Abdullahi to provide evidences Igbo people killed northerners during the #EndSARS protests to substantiate his claim, unless it was intended to incite another round of killing of Igbo resident in the north.

Insisting that with such comments, the Igbo in the north were not safe, Nwodo reminded Abdullahi that on the contrary, the Igbo have borne the brunt and have been victims of misguided attacks by their northern ‘brothers’ at the slightest disturbances in the country.

“Sometimes Ndigbo are attacked and killed even as a result of events outside the country, and no restitution has been made for such losses as far as we can remember,” he said.

Nwodo lamented that the Igbo had lost property worth trillions of naira to attacks in the north, yet they were the catalyst of development and the unifying cord that held Nigeria together.

On its part, MASSOB in a statement issued by its leader, Uchenna Madu, said it was not in the nature of the Igboman to hurt non-indigenes resident in their domains, stressing that on the contrary, Arewa people had killed the Igbo on several occasions in the north.

MASSOB said as a result of the divide and rule syndrome, disaffections and brotherly discord by some Arewa leaders “parasites against people of eastern region are no longer fashionable and workable, because the present generation of ethnic nationalities does not favour political enslavement by the northern oligarchy”.

It described Abdullahi as an expired political parasite that could no longer withstand the future political reality that would eventually change Nigeria’s political narrative.