By Emmanuel Ugwu
The failure of the governors of Southeast zone to emulate their South West counterparts in adopting a regional security outfit has infuriated several stakeholders with the Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC) slamming the governors for their “act of cowardice”.
Southeast governors had, contrary to expectations, opted to toe the line of the federal government by adopting community policing whereas the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo wanted Ogbunigwe akin to Amotekun in the South West.
The OYC in a statement issued by its national president, Igboayaka O. Igboayaka said that the Southeast governors displayed “an act of cowardice” by yielding to the pressure from the federal government not to follow on the footsteps of the South West governors
“The apex youth body of over 30 million Igbo youths, rejected the decision taken by the South East governors who opted for community policing in line with the security policy of the federal government,” the statement said.
Igboayaka stated that he has been receiving “a deluge of calls from Ndigbo both home and abroad denouncing the Reacting on the “awkward decision” of the Southeast governors.
According to him, the groundswell of opinion in the Southeast and among Ndigbo in the Diaspora was in favour of “a viable, strong and technology-driven native regional security outfit”.
The Igbo youths insisted that the Southeast governors were insensitive to the yearnings of their people, adding that “the governors, by their actions, only speak for themselves and not for Ndigbo”.
The group stated that the chief executives of the five states of the Southeast should have known that “our people have lost total confidence on the Nigeria security agencies, having failed to secure the region from all manner of criminals”.
OYC regretted that “rather than serve the general interest of Ndigbo, the governors who have apparently compromised, were hellbent on implementing the decision of the Fulani cabals led by Abba Kyari whose agents were present at the meeting.
“The Igbo youth organization, therefore, resolved that the northern political mafias cannot decide for Ndigbo, just as Amotekun was a collective resolution of the Yorubas, without the interference of the powers that be,” the OYC leader said.
He vowed that “there was no going back on the planned regional security outfit as we will not continue to entrust our lives and properties in the hands of the Nigerian security authorities”.
The OYC further urged governors of Igbo extraction to, “within 30 days reconsider their decision and commence the setting up of a regional security team that will be backed by the South East House of Assembly”.
This, the youths argued, would guarantee the safety of Ndigbo. warning that Ndigbo could in the alternative brush aside the governors and through the OYC organize a regional security outfit that will serve the Igbo interest.
