Ohanaeze Debunks Alleged Killings of 100 Northerners in S’East

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia

The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, has debunked what ir described as a ‘malicious propaganda’ dished out by people identified as ‘enemies of peace’ to cause disharmony, distrust and mutual coexistence between the South East zone and the North.

One Auwal Abdullahi Aliyu, who labeled himself as coordinator of the Northern Consensus Forum, had alleged that 100 northerners were murdered in the South East within last week.

Last Friday, a pro-north newspaper promptly ran with the purported killings, givng Aliyu’s claims a curious prominence.

But Ohanaeze, in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Dr Chiedozie Alex Ogbonnia, roundly condemned the purveyors of falsehood, describing the alleged killings as “a lie from the pit of hell.”

According to him, “The most disturbing part of the report is (the claim that) ‘not less than 100 northerners were murdered in the South East within last week.”

The Ohanaeze spokesman wondered, where Aliyu got his wild allegations of killings of northerners, when he has “not been in the picture among the Northern leaders resident in the South East”.

He said it was unusual that recognised Northern leaders in the South East were unaware of such large scale killings and the security agencies did not react in any way to alleged incident if it has actually happened.

Ogbonnia noted that Aliyu’s grandstanding would not in any way lift him to “such a position to speak on the relationship between the Northerners and the people of the South East,” adding that that the alarmist was out to wreak havoc.

“One begins to imagine the very intendment of the purveyor of such a false, mendacious and devilish alarm that ‘not less than 100 northerners have been killed in the South East within last week. An introspection will reveal the damage caused on the image of Nigeria among the comity of nations that 100 persons are killed in one week.

“Apart from the negative image to Nigeria, such unverified front page report is a breach on the duties and civic responsibilities expected of a national daily such as the Daily Trust. Investigative journalism suggests that both the number of persons killed and the locations, where they were killed should have been indicated in the report by the Daily Trust,” he said.