Magnus Eze, Enugu and Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
More Igbo groups, yesterday, bashed the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBAN) over its plan to set up Fulani Youths Vigilance groups in the South East.
Two eminent groups- the Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) and Nzuko Umunna (NU)- said the contemplation by the umbrella body of herdsmen was an open indictment on the nation’s security structure.
Chairman of ADF Media and Publicity Bureau, Chief Abia Onyike, said the group considered the latest plan by MACBAN as strange and viewed it with serious suspicion, based on alleged atrocities they had committed in several communities in Nigeria including Igboland where they had killed, raped women and children with impunity for several years, leading to their categorisation as the fourth most deadly terrorist organisation in the world by the United Nations.
It called on Igbo patriots, pressure groups, South East governors and the coalition of South East town unions to reject the alleged plan in its totality.
“We call on South East governors to refrain from buying into the deceptive schemes of MACBAN, as their overall strategy has been the seizure and occupation of ancestral lands of host communities with attendant political/ religious domination of the affected communities,” Onyike alleged.
On its part, the NU warned the MACBAN to “immediately withdraw” its proposal to set up “Fulani Vigilantes” in the region.
In a statement by Messrs Ngozi Odumuko, coordinator and Paschal Mbanefo, secretary, the influential pan-Igbo organisation said the proposal “is not only the height of insult but a clear vote of no-confidence on the nation’s security apparatus.”
Urging the group to “immediately withdraw the provocative proposal and apologise to Ndigbo,” NU said, adding that the Federal Government should hold the leadership of Miyetti Allah responsible for any untoward outcomes from its ill-advised proposal.
“Miyetti Allah should also not be unmindful of the grave potential of pitching its members against an already restive Igbo youth population,” the group warned.
In a related development, the Igbo National Council (INC), has called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, to arrest those behind the proposal by Miyetti Allah.
The National President of INC, Chilos Godsent, who addressed newsmen, yesterday, in Owerri, Imo State, maintained that the arrest has become imperative to avert what he described as looming ‘ethnic war.’
He accused the Federal Government of pampering the Miyetti Allah group instead of declaring it a terrorist organisation.
Godsent vowed that INC would do everything to protect the zone against invasion.
“INC will take every proactive step to resist and defend Igbo territories against any form of attack, and conspiracies.”
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) also warned Miyetti Allah to stay back in their territory or face the wrath of its people.
This was disclosed by the Special Assistant to the Media Director of IPOB, Emma Powerful.
“They have tried it before, some decades ago to conquer Ndigbo but,we are waiting, it is not a threat, but a promise,” Powerful said.