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Outraged Ohanaeze seeks end to killing of Igbo

By Muyiwa Adeyemi (Head S’West Bureau Ado Ekiti), Lawrence  Njoku (Enugu), Hendrix Oliomogbe (Asaba), Segun Olaniyi and Uzoma Nzeagwu
02 June 2016   |   2:59 am
Apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, yesterday expressed outrage at Monday’s killings of pro-Biafra protesters in parts of the Southeast and demanded an immediate halt to the development.
Members of the Indigenous People of Biafra during a protest. PHOTO: AFP PHOTO / PIUS UTOMI EKPEI

Members of the Indigenous People of Biafra during a protest. PHOTO: AFP PHOTO / PIUS UTOMI EKPEI

• Delta warns against inclusion of Anioma in Biafra, IPOB faults IGP
• Fayose, group condemn military attack on protesters

Apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, yesterday expressed outrage at Monday’s killings of pro-Biafra protesters in parts of the Southeast and demanded an immediate halt to the development.

Calling on the entire world to rise in condemnation of the incident, Ohanaeze said it would no longer continue to tolerate the killing of
the Igbo in the country as it called on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency set up an inquiry into the causes of those
recorded during the incident.

Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose has also condemned the Monday’s killing of over 30 Igbo protesters, who were mainly members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). The governor said that President Mohammadu Buhari was turning the people of the South East and South South to “politically endangered species.”

Fayose called on the international community to take note of the wanton killings being perpetrated by the Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) government.

In a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Fayose said there was no justification whatsoever for the killing of over 30 Igbo youths just because they were marking “Biafra Day in memory of the former leader of the defunct Biafra Republic, the late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu.”

Similarly, a non-governmental organisation, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has condemned the killings of pro-Biafra demonstrators in major towns of the South East and South South by security forces, saying they were a crime against humanity.

HURIWA alleged that soldiers and police without provocation shot live bullets into crowds of totally unarmed and peaceful members of IPOB and MASSOB.

Contrary to the notion that the protesting groups bore arms and had provoked the attack, Ohanaeze insisted that the groups were a
non-violent one and were therefore unarmed while being massacred by security forces.

Scores of members MASSOB and IPOB who were marking the anniversary of Biafra were killed during the event on Monday especially in Onitsha by security agents.

Reacting to the development in a statement issued in Enugu yesterday by the Secretary General, Dr. Joe Nworgu, Ohanaeze said it was no longer comfortable with the unprovoked bloodletting of the Igbo in Nigeria.

According to the organisation, the Igbo are not a violent group and believe in the spirit of competition and as such should be allowed to exist.

The statement said: “ We are traumatised by the outrageous killing of the members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and MASSOB in cold blood in the early hours of Monday, 30th May 2016 and then in the afternoon of same day.

“We are unimpressed and unconvinced by the talk of provocation. What level of provocation will warrant the firing of tear gas, without first calling on a crowd, legal or illegal to disperse? The tear gas was followed by a salvo of gunfire with live bullets. No! No! No!

“All Nigerians and indeed all people who like humanity must condemn in its entirety this heinous display of brutality. This is everything except gallantry.

“The two organisations are sworn believers in non-violence. They say, and we believe them, that they were totally unarmed at the times of the onslaughts.

“The Igbo nation is outraged and condemns these killings in the strongest terms. Such should never happen whether under military dictatorship or democracy. Ndigbo are known democrats from time immemorial. We believe in competition. We are not a violent people”.

The statement continued: “Consequently, Ohanaeze calls on the Anambra State government to immediately set up an investigative panel to get the record of what occurred.

“The Federal Government also should set up its own inquiry to give the world the true picture. This is necessary so that justice is seen to be done.

“We are unhappy with the continued bloodletting visited on our people and want such nefarious events to cease forthwith.”

Besides, the Delta State government says no part of the state should be associated with the pro-Biafra movement.

In a statement in Asaba, the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Festus Agas, condemned the agitation by the groups especially their insistence on the inclusion of the Igbo-speaking Anioma people of Delta State as part of Biafra.

Titled “Biafra Agitation, Our Stand’’ Agas explained that it was clearly a patent error for anybody or group to suggest or insinuate that Delta State or more specifically Anioma people have been or are part of the South East that is supposed to make up the proposed Biafra Republic.

Meanwhile, IPOB has said that the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Solomon Ehigiator Arase’s statement that IPOB members were armed and undertook premeditated attacks on police officers on May 31, 2016 was a false allegation meant to deceive the public.

In a statement by the spokespersons of IPOB, Emma Nmezu and Dr. Clifford C. Iroanya, made available to newsmen in Awka, yesterday, they faulted the IGP‘s statement warning that, “No one takes a Biafran life and gets away scot-free. How can the police disarm people who are not armed in the first place? How come you never issued any press statement when Buhari’s armed gang called Fulani herdsmen massacred thousands of Biafrans in Agatu, Nimbo, Aba, and other areas in Biafraland?”

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