Magnus Eze and Jude Chinedu, Enugu
The President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo has said Nigeria was a failing state which could no longer guarantee equal treatment of all its citizens to the detriment of the nation’s continued existence.
Chief Nwodo said this during the stopover of the remains of late Justice Ezebuilo Ozobu at its secretariat in Enugu, yesterday.
“Nigeria is failing as a state that guarantees equal treatment for all her people. Nigeria is failing as a state that can conduct transparent elections. Nigeria is failing economically. We need a national conference to throw away the constitution imposed on us and to restructure our political system otherwise, we should agree to disagree and go our separate ways.
“Our country Nigeria no longer guarantees equal treatment for all her citizens. If you are Fulani herdsmen, you can carry fire arms without license. If you are Hisba police in Kano, you can carry firearms without reproach.
“If you belong to the civilian Joint Task Force in the North East, you can carry firearms. If you are a Northern Fulani, you can exceed your term of office as Chief of Army Staff or Chief of Air Staff in violation of our establishment rules and laws.
“If you are Amotekun or neighbourhood watch in the Middle Belt or Eastern Nigeria, the Attorney General will turn himself into a court and declare it illegal for you to operate let alone carry arms.
“If you are from the South East, and you are elected a governor, the Supreme Court can reallocate votes and take away your victory even when your opponent who was voted for the same day as the state legislators could not win a single state assembly seat for his party.
If the legislators abandon their party in the currency of their tenure and in violation of the extant court decisions, the attorney general goes to sleep.”
He restated his commitment, as leader of Ohanaeze, to continue to fight for the good of the Igbo nation just as late Justice Ozobu did.
“What would Ozobu do in a circumstance like this? He will condemn them. He will condemn the treatment of IPOB as a terrorist organization and the arming of herdsmen. I will also condemn this discriminatory treatment of our people.”
Meanwhile, the was palpable fear in and around the Enugu State University Teaching Hospital (ESUTH), Parklane, Enugu, yesterday, following the outbreak of Lassa Fever, that killed a patient in the hospital.
Daily Sun gathered that the woman, 75, presented to the hospital about 11 days ago with some symptoms akin to malaria.
She died Tuesday in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) while the sample sent out to the virology centre in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State was returned positive.