By Linus Aleke
Apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo worldwide, has condemned, in strong terms, the killing of non-southerners in the South-East by yet-to-be-identified criminal gangs, often referred to as unknown gunmen.

The group also tasked the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), and Northern Elders Forum (NEF), to also speak out against what it called the systematic and continued killing of Christians in the north.The Secretary-General, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, in a statement yesterday, further charged the Federal Government, ACF and NEF to first remove the pieces of dust in their eyes before helping Ndigbo to remove the log of woods in their own eyes.

According to him, “Ohanaeze Ndigbo worldwide has accepted the burden and responsibilities on behalf of the political, community, and religious leaders of South-East extraction, to denounce the slayings of northerners and southeasterners who were casualties of the carnages and imported chaos witnessed in the South-East.

“Ndigbo will continue to work in partnership with the South-East governors to ensure that normalcy returns to the South-East, but compel the Federal Government to first remove the pieces of dust in her eyes before helping Ndigbo to remove the log of woods in our eyes”.

According to Isiguzoro, the APC-led Federal Government has been reluctant to rescue its abducted citizens who are currently in the hands of terrorists “for only a crime they committed by using the Abuja/Kaduna passengers’ train.”

The statement added, “We are stunned over the blackmail from ACF and NEF against the South-East politicians over the killing of northerners in the South-East, when the northern political leadership and cultural organisations always turn blind eyes to the kidnapping and massacres of Christians, mainly southerners across the North, especially in Kaduna.

Director of “Blood Sisters”, Biyi Bandele passes on

“It’s on record that since the inception of the President Buhari administration in 2015, Igbos have felt the worst hits of the Boko Haram and bandit activities in the North, and over 2,355 Igbos had sacrificed their lives under the present government without any form of Federal Government compensation for the bereaved families.”

The Ohanaeze scribe said the association was fully aware of the fact that there had been attempts by northern groups and the ruling APC to use the security challenges in the South-East to blackmail the presidential candidate of a South-East extraction in 2023.

“We want to ask President Buhari, ACF, and NEF; what efforts they deployed to thwart and halt the spread of northern banditry and vicious activities of killer herdsmen from the North to the South. Why did the Federal Government and northern cultural organisations ignore the US and UK alarms about the imminent spread of northern insurgency to the South by the middle of last year, especially towards the east?

“We have taken the lead in condemning the killing of northerners in the east, and charge President Buhari, ACF, NEF and northern groups to follow suit,” Isiguzoro stressed.

Director of “Blood Sisters”, Biyi Bandele passes on

It would be recalled that the spokesman of Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, on Sunday, issued a caution against the killing of northerners in the South-East.

Baba-Ahmed, in a tweet, said targeting and killing northerners in the South-East was dangerous.

He pointed out that such an action could worsen community relations in other parts of Nigeria.

The NEF spokesman added that politicians looking for votes should openly condemn such acts and that such actions against northerners must stop.

Meanwhile, as the leadership of the apex socio-cultural organisation of Igbos, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Bayelsa State chapter, has expelled the Special Assistant to the Bayelsa State Governor on Special Duties, Chinedu Arthur-Ugwa, and two others, for conferring a title “Enyi Ndigbo” on the commissioner for education, Gentle Emelah.

The president of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Bayelsa State chapter and Special Adviser to the Bayelsa State Governor on Non-indigene, Onuma Johnson, said the resolution to expel Arthur-Ugwa was reached after a stakeholders meeting, on 14th July, where it was “resolved that Chief Chinedu Ugwa, Chief Remigius Ekwem, Mr. Patrick Emeka Ugwu and others have been totally excommunicated from Igbo community activities in the state.”

He said the organisation had also communicated to the commissioner for education, the recipient of the award, Emelah, that the title is null and void, and should be disregarded as the conferment did not follow the Ohanaeze Ndigbo constitutional process.