Sylvester Idowu in Warri
The Igbo Union, an umbrella body of Igbo communities and cultural associations in the United States of America (USA), has condemned what it described as “South-east governors tacit disposition in handling spate of insecurity, banditry, terrorism in Igbo land.”
The Diaspora group maintained it was displeased with the South-east governors for not being active towards the protection of lives and property of their people.
The Union, in a statement signed by its Coordinator, Chief Ike Orji; the Secretary-General, Mr. Matthew Ohanele and others sent to THISDAY yesterday, stated that the South-east governors failed to heed to suggestions from various groups in tackling the rising insecurity in the region.
It endorsed the Eastern Security Network (ESN) urging the governors in the region to desist from contemplating the use of military force against their people but to evolve ways to partner ESN to eradicate killings in the zone.
The group bemoaned the South-east Governors Forum on their incompetence to promptly treat the letter the association purportedly wrote in June and August 2020, on the need for a security network to protect the South-east geo-political zone against rampaging Fulani herdsmen.
“To date, the governors neither responded to the letter nor did anything to guarantee the security and safety of Igbo lives and property but curiously, a few weeks ago, came up with a phony trojan horse code-named Ebube Agu,” it alleged.
The group expressed regret that, while the federal government paid ransoms and were busy negotiating with the terrorists, Igbo men and women who lost their lives, crops, property, raped and sexually assaulted were left to cater for themselves”, adding that such lame and naive approach by the governors only emboldened the murderers and killers.
The Igbo Union, frowned against alleged plan by south east governors to invite the military or create another regional security outfit in the area, averring that the grassroots Ndigbo were in total and complete support of the establishment of Eastern Security Network (ESN) and urged them not to sabotage the security outfit for the zone.
The body said, “The world is also watching Governor Umahi of Ebonyi State who is crying and biting his fingers regrettably” saying that, “we can only hope that he learns from his miscalculations so as to avoid a repeat of the same mistakes and unmask the perpetrator of the heinous crime in his state since he told the whole world that he had information on their identities”.
The Igbo Union advised the federal government not to make one tribe or ethnic group superior to the other, questioning that, “If Mayetti Allah’s leader could be seen riding in a convoy in Abuja and the establishment of Amotekun security outfit in the south west without opposition then nothing is wrong if Ndigbo decides to establish ESN to curtail the ongoing atrocities in the land?.
