According to the Indigenous Igbo Women Assembly, General Christopher Musa, the Chief of Defense Staff, should “move his men to the bush to combat the killer herdsmen killing farmers and raping women and girls” if he is truly dedicated to restoring peace in the area.
The women made this public in response to the CDS’s recent warning to the South East’s citizens not to use social media to advertise the actions of the Indigenous People of Biafra and its military wing, the Eastern Security Network.
The CDS, represented by Group Captain Ibrahim Bukar, during a recent engagement in Anambra State, had said that the spread of unverified information “not only endangers the region but also poses a threat to national unity and peace”, adding that “IPOB’s actions are detrimental not just to the South East, but to Nigeria as a whole,” and should not be supported in any form.
However, in a statement, IWA’s National President, Lolo Nneka Chimezie, challenged the CDS that IPOB is not a terrorist group, but a peaceful movement protesting the marginalisation and continued exclusion of the South East from the scheme of things in Nigeria, urging him to advise the federal government to listen to the agitations of IPOB and engage the group in dialogue with a view to addressing its genuine concerns, instead of resorting to propaganda to blackmail its members.”We want to remind Gen. Musa that IPOB members are not terrorists but our children who are protesting the ill-treatment and marginalization of the South East from the scheme of things in Nigeria,” the women stated in a statement made available to newsmen in Umuahia on Sunday. The Nigerian State has severely sidelined the South East during the civil war until now.
From 1966 after the assassination of Gen. Aguiyironsi till date, no Igbo man has been President of Nigeria. Ndigbo have grossly been marginalized in political appointments by successive administrations in the country. They have been denied their rightful promotion especially those in the security agencies. And that’s part of the reasons Igbo youths are losing interest in military recruitment. They have refused to join the military and even the police because they hardly get promoted like their colleagues from other tribes”.
Expressing their concern further, the women asked, “Why is the federal government killing IPOB members but granting amnesty to bandits and mass murderers who have not stopped killing innocent citizens, including security agents? Why is the government killing our youths during peaceful protests, but allowing armed herdsmen on a killing spree to keep roaming our communities with guns?
“What is the rationale behind the constant release of captured terrorists who claim to have repented, while peaceful agitators like IPOB members are held in perpetual detention? Fulani herdsmen do not need AK-47s in the South East because there has never been any incident of cattle rustling in the region. For them to carry AK-47s about, shooting people shows they have an evil agenda because they don’t shoot and run, but shoot and stay.
“IPOB’s demands are reasonable. They have a right to it. Criminal elements and killer herdsmen are responsible for the chaos in the area. Let the CDS counsel the federal government to pay attention to IPOB, have frank discussions with the youths, and resolve their complaints if he genuinely cares about the South East’s peace being restored.
“Gen. Musa needs to realize that the Fulani herdsmen who are displacing communities throughout the South East are the real issue, not IPOB. Gen. Musa should send his forces into the bush to fight the herdsmen who are murdering our farmers and raping our women and girls if he wishes to keep the South East peaceful and orderly.
IWA traced the genesis of the tension in the South East to the deployment of the military to the zone during a special military operation codenamed Python Dance, stating, “May we remind Gen. Musa that prior to the drafting and deployment of the military to the South East by President Muhammadu Buhari, we had absolute peace in Igbo land. South East was the most peaceful region in Nigeria before then.
“When the federal government abducted IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, from Kenya, the problem became worse. IPOB members in protest declared a Monday sit-at-home protest but relaxed it after appeals from the elders. During President Donald Trump’s inauguration, a lot of them were shot and killed in Port Harcourt for celebrating Trump. Many were also killed in Onitsha and Aba for merely praying and carrying out peaceful protests.
The Igbo women also decried the continued migration of youths from the South East who are fleeing intimidation and humiliation by security operatives, especially at roadblocks and condemned reprisal attacks on innocent communities any time security agents come under attacks by criminals in South East, stating, “While the security operatives deployed to the South East were busy crushing our youths, criminals were busy spreading insecurity in the South East.
“There have been several attacks against security agencies in the North but how many Northern villages were sacked in the aftermath unlike here in the South East? Awo Idemiri and Eke Ututu market in Imo State were all attacked. These made our youths to migrate from the South East in their droves. What the security agents are doing is to systematically chase our youths away so that we will not have those to defend us when the rumoured jihad eventually starts.”
With the statement, “There is an invasion of the South East by strange faces doing all sorts of menial jobs and surveying our land,” IWA further expressed alarm over the alien inflow in the region and called on security personnel to look into their mission. IPOB does not include these odd faces. Some of these unemployed vagrants outweigh the landowners in some villages. Why hasn’t the Nigerian government taken anything to stop these robbers who are armed and murdering defenseless people whenever they want?
Therefore, Igbo women called for the urgent removal of security roadblocks throughout the South East, claiming that they have turned into extortion hotspots and are generating traffic jams.
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