From From Magnus Eze, Enugu
The Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF), and several Igbo groups and leaders, yesterday, condemned the gruesome murder of innocent citizens across Igboland by AK-47 wielding Fulani herders.
They warned that their people would no longer tolerate such heinous act.
This week alone, over 23 Igbo have been dastardly killed in their homes for no justifiable reasons.
Describing the situation as unacceptable, Ohanaeze expressed worry that while other countries were waxing on development programmes, Nigerians were busy counting on loss of human lives through murderous Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram, kidnappings, banditry and other extrajudicial means.
A statement by National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Chief Alex Ogbonnia, the group said that the obvious failure of government to protect the lives and property of its citizens could make them resort to self-help.
Ohanaeze regretted that the Federal Government had ignored its call that Nigeria be restructured such that, among other benefits, the command structure of the security network in each state would be able to respond to the peculiar security challenges of the people.
It called on the South East Governors to urgently inaugurate and activate the regional security measures to enforce the ban on open grazing, and also strictly implement the national and state laws against illegal occupation of land.
“For purpose of clarity, there is no man’s land in Igboland. Every piece of land belongs to families, communities, towns or even deities. Land is also not common in Igboland, abundant or available as in other parts of the country. For the honest patriotic Nigerians, it seems provocative as well as suspicious that the herdsmen in a section of the country that occupies nearly 80 percent of the country’s land mass want land to graze cattle from those holding about 20 percent.
“We must stop deceiving ourselves and speak truth to power for the sake of peaceful national coexistence, political stability and national progress,” Ogbonnia stated.
On its part, ADF blamed the South East Governors for jettisoning the decision of February, 9, 2020, by Igbo leaders under the canopy of Imeobi Ohanaeze, to set up a regional security outfit like the Amotekun in Yorubaland.
ADF spokesman, Chief Abia Onyike said the large scale massacres in Adani, Uzo-Uwani in Enugu State and Ishielu in Ebonyi State, would not have been possible if the zone had a formidable security network.
ADF urged the various communities in Igboland to organize their local vigilante and defend themselves “as their state governments do not seem to be prepared to decisively deal with the security challenges in the region.”