Igbo Women Group Wants FG to Stop Demonising IPOB, Show Commitment to Ending Insecurity in S’East 

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia


A group of Igbo women under the aegis of Igbo Women Assembly(IWA) has chided the security agencies for their fixation with demonising the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) instead of dealing with the real cause of insecurity in the South-east zone.

The women said they were appalled by the apparent absence of commitment to tackle insecurity in South-east as security agencies readily blame IPOB for every security breach without investigations. 

The Chief of Defense Staff (CDS), Gen. Christopher Musa, had recently blamed IPOB for spreading insecurity in the South-east and warned people against promoting the activities of the group on social media.

Represented by Group Captain Ibrahim Bukar at a community engagement at Omor in Anambra State, the CDS said that “IPOB’s actions are detrimental not just to the South-east, but to Nigeria as a whole.”

Musa specifically took a swipe at people using the social media to glorify the activities of IPOB, saying that unverified information “not only endangers the South-east region but also poses a threat to national unity and peace.”

But in a statement signed by its President, Lolo Nneka Chimezie, IWA disagreed with the CDS, telling him that IPOB has never been the cause of insecurity in South-east.

The group said that the CDS and others at the helm of Nigeria’s security agencies must stop living in denial and come to terms with the fact that the globally recognised killer herdsmen, not IPOB, are the perpetrators of insecurity in South-east.

“We want to remind Gen. Musa said that IPOB members are not terrorists but our children who are protesting the ill-treatment and marginalisation of the South-east from the scheme of things in Nigeria.

“Since after the civil war up till now, the South-east has been grossly marginalised by the Nigeria state. From 1966 after the assassination of Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi till date, no Igbo man has been President of Nigeria,” IWA stated.

The women group also stated that Igbos in security agencies “have  been denied their rightful promotions and that’s part of the reasons Igbo youths are loosing interest in military recruitments.”

“They have refused to join the military and even the police because they hardly get promoted unlike their colleagues from other tribes. In other federal establishments, the story is the same. The quota of the South East is always shortchanged.”

IWA defended the agitations of IPOB members, saying that marginalisation of Ndigbo “are the things these children are protesting”, adding that “when they graduate from school like their fellow youths from other tribes, they don’t get equal opportunities for employment”.

“We can no longer foolishly shy away from the plights of our children. They want inclusion and full integration into the Nigeria system,” the Igbo Women said.

According to them, if the CDS and the Nigerian authorities were genuinely committed to the restoration of peace to the South-east, they should go after the murderous herdsmen, killing, maiming people and displacing communities.

IWA argued that “Fulani herdsmen do not need AK-47 in the South-east because there has never been any incident of cattle rustling in the region. For them to carry AK-47 about, shooting people shows they have an evil agenda because they don’t shoot and run but shoot and stay.”

The group therefore, gave some posers to the CDS, saying, “Why is the federal government killing IPOB members but granting amnesty to bandits and mass murderers who have not stopped killing innocent citizens including security agents?

“Why is government killing our youths on peaceful protests but allowing armed herdsmen on killing sprees to keep roaming our communities with guns?”

The Igbo Women Assembly said that it was high time the federal government and its security forces changed their propaganda and blackmail tactics and started listening to IPOB and engaging the group in peaceful dialogue because its demands “are legitimate”.

“Gen. Musa should understand that the problem of the South-east is not IPOB: our problem is the rampaging Fulani herdsmen busy displacing communities across the zone.

“If Gen. Musa wants to maintain peace and order in the South-east, he should move his men to the bush to combat the killer herdsmen killing our farmers and raping our women and girls.

“If the CDS truly loves the restoration of peace in the South-east, let him advise the federal government to listen to IPOB and engage the youths in sincere dialogue and address their grievances. We are tired of all these endless blame games,” IWA said.