By Godwin Aliuna A southeast group, under the aegis of Alaigbo Development Foundation, ADF, on Wednesday petitioned international co...
By Godwin Aliuna
A southeast group, under the aegis of Alaigbo Development
Foundation, ADF, on Wednesday petitioned international communities to wade into
the gruesome murder of over 21 members of the Indigenous People of Biafra,
IPOB.
The leadership of the group, in a statement signed by its
President, Mr. Abia Onyike, and forwarded to DAILY POST in Abakaliki, however,
tasked President Mohammadu Buhari to immediately remove the ban on IPOB
activities.
It reads in part: “ADF unequivocally condemns the brutal
massacre of over 21 Igbo youths in this latest phase of the Igbo genocide, the
longest, most continuous and unresolved genocide in the political history of
the African continent. The first phase of the Igbo genocide was from 1966-1970
and was used to inaugurate Africa’s age of pestilence as the first
post-colonial genocide in the continent.
“ADF believes that this brutal massacre of unarmed and
defenceless citizens who were meeting in an open space to discuss their affairs
is the height of political impunity and arbitrariness on the part of the
security agencies. We totally agree with the Assistant Inspector-General of
Police(AIG), Zone 13, Danmallam Mohammed who described the assault on IPOB
members by the security agents as “unbecoming and unfortunate”.
“ADF notes the ominous dimension whereby the only two Igbo
personnel on the DSS side were the only casualties of the shooting on the side
of the security agents. The security personnel were mainly Hausa-Fulani and the
only victims were the Igbo elements in the security contingent.
The emerging theory that they were gunned down by their
colleagues for purposes of covering up the cold-blooded atrocity, which they
may have vehemently opposed, should not be discountenanced.
Mr. Onyike who is the former National Vice President Nigeria
UnionJournalists, NUJ, noted further that “The time has come to compel the
perpetrators of such pre-judicial killings to pay for their crimes against
humanity. There is no law in Nigeria that authorized law enforcement agents to
open fire and murder unarmed citizens, under whatever guise, without recourse
to investigation and judicial prosecution. Nigeria is not a banana republic
where trigger-happy warlords are let loose to unleash mayhem on peaceful
citizens without recourse to due process.
“The so-called proscription of IPOB which was hastily
undertaken by the Federal Government ought to have been lifted by now. After
all, other more deadly and armed terrorist organisation such as the Fulani
Herdsmen (categorized by the United Nations as the world’s
fourth terrorist organisation) are yet to be proscribed by the Nigerian
government. Moreover, the set of Igbo leaders who allowed themselves to be used
for the illegitimate exercise have since regretted their actions”.
“The Nigerian Government should learn to engage/ negotiate
with the IPOB and other separatist groups fighting for self-determination and
discontinue its present brazen policy of brutal massacre of peaceful agitators,
such as IPOB.
“ADF calls on the UN, AU, ECOWAS, EU, USA, Britain and the
International human rights organizations to immediately institute an
investigation into the unprovoked genocide, for the purposes of bringing the
state-sponsored murderers to justice. The time has come for the international
community to demonstrate to us that they regard us as part of humanity and that
Igbo lives also matter,” he stressed.
Source
those who killed by the sword will also die by the sword, Biafra is an ideology which makes it impossible to extinguish.
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