From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
Igbo women under the aegis of Igbo Women Assembly (IWA), have told the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa, that the insecurity problem ravaging the South East was not a result of the presence of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), but the existence of killer herdsmen in the zone.
The CDS had, during a public engagement in Omor, Anambra State, while condemning IPOB activities, said IPOB’s actions were detrimental not just to the South East, but to Nigeria as a whole, and should not be supported in any form.
Represented by Group Captain Ibrahim Bukar, Gen Musa said the spread of unverified information not only endangers the region but also poses a threat to national unity and peace.
In a statement by its National President, Lolo Nneka Chimezie, IWA told Gen Musa and the Nigerian Army to go after the killer herdsmen displacing communities in South East, if he was genuinely committed to the restoration of peace to the zone, stressing that the rampaging herders, and not members of the IPOB, were the problems of South East.
She challenged the CDS to advise the Federal Government to listen to the agitations of IPOB and engage the group in dialogue with a view to addressing its genuine concerns, instead of resorting to propaganda to blackmail its members.
The statement read: “We want to remind Gen. Musa 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. Ndigbo have grossly been marginalised in political appointments by successive administrations in the country.
“They have been denied their rightful promotion, especially those in the security agencies. 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.
“So, these are the things these children are protesting. When they graduate from school like their fellow youths from other tribes, they don’t get equal opportunities for employment. That’s what they are protesting because they believe that they are not included in the Nigeria structure. They feel unjustly excluded.
“They want inclusion and full integration into the Nigeria system. We can no longer foolishly shy away from the plights of our children.”
The women queried the rational behind the constant release of captured terrorists who claim to have repented while peaceful agitators like IPOB members are held in perpetual detention or even killed.
“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 spree to keep roaming our communities with guns?
“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.
“There have been several attacks against security agencies in the North but how many Northern villages were sacked in the aftermath unlike here in the South East? Awo Idemili, Eke Ututu market in Imo State were all attacked. These made our youths to migrate from South East in their droves.
“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.”
IWA, which traced the genesis of the tension in the South East to the deployment of the military to the zone during a special military operation codenamed Python Dance, insisted that IPOB is a peaceful movement, but rather accused the federal government of mismanaging the group’s agitations.