By Chukwudi Nweje
Igbo ladies, under the banner of the Credible Igbo Women Initiative, yesterday, in Lagos, have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to save them from marauding herdsmen who rape women in their farms and destroy their source of livelihood.
In a communique issued at a press conference, the women also called on the Federal Government to initiate a programme to compensate or ameliorate the victims as done in other civilised societies.
They said: “It is with grave concern that we draw the attention of the Federal Government to the callous manner in which mothers and daughters are raped and killed in our farms by herders, thereby, degrading our humanity and leaving us with a sense of stigmatisation and attendant moral burdens. Having lost our livelihood to herders’ invasion of our farms and destruction of farm produce, our hope lies in the government to compensate or ameliorate our losses through targeted policy engagements as is won’t to be done in civilised societies.”
The women also condemned the destruction of government assets in the South East and urged the Federal Government to give them a 90-day moratorium of cessation of hostilities to engage with the youths to present their grievances.
“We request a 90-day moratorium of cessation of hostilities between the Federal Government of Nigeria and our belligerent youths, to enable us to bring our children to the dialogue table and afford them the opportunity to respectfully present their grievances to the Federal Government of Nigeria. We urge the Federal Government to be open minded in handling our children’s requests bearing in mind that they represent the vestiges of the civil war and their fathers both living and dead are war veterans. We humbly urge the Federal Government to suspend or stay further action on pre-emptive military strikes in Igbo land that would result in avoidable deaths of our children and husbands, as we launch out for peaceful resolution of the insecurity in the South East.”