Apparently disturbed by the present alarming insecurity in the country, the chairman of Ohaneze Ndigbo Council of Elders, Chief Emmanuel Iwanyanwu, has advocated for a meeting between the Igbo and Northern leaders.
In a statement issued in Owerri on Saturday, Iwuanyanwu advised the leadership of Ohaneze Ndigbo, under Prof. George Obiozor, to as a matter of urgency convoke a meeting with the view to finding out the solutions to the ugly security situation to avoid a reoccurrence of what happened in 1966.
Chief Iwuanyanwu described the unfolding events in the country as extremely shocking and completely beyond any expectation and human imagination.
He observed with dismay that the state of insecurity in the country had reach a crescendo where blood of innocent citizens are being wasted on daily basis in various stages of the Federation.
Ahaejiagamba pointed out that the most worrisome is the recent murder of an illustrious Nigerian Dr. Ahmad Gulak from Adamawa State in cold blood while he was on a national assignment as a consultant to the National Assembly on Constitutional Review in Imo State.
Chief Iwuanyanwu, while expressing sympathy to the family and friends of Dr. Gulak, the Arewas, other Northern groups and the government and people of Adamawa State, said that he had received calls from Nigerians from all walks of life over the gruesome murder of a distinguished Nigerian.
He equally commiserated with all those that lost their dear ones through the insecurity situation across the states of the federation.
The frontline Igbo leader recalled that over the years, Igbo people had enjoyed a very cordial relationship with all Nigerians, including the Northerners, pointing out that the Igbo, as an ethnic group are domiciled all over the country.
He said: “Wherever Igbo live, they always maintain peace, harmony, obey the laws of the people and respect their customs and tradition.”
Chief Iwuanyanwu, who attributed the worsening Insecurity in the country to Boko Haram, which according to him launched violent attack on Nigerian sovereignty commencing from the North East, added that Boko Haram ensured that they hoisted their flag wherever they conquered.
He commended the Nigerian Government and military for stopping those Boko Haram insurgents from overrunning the entire country.
A former presidential aspirant in the country regretted that in spite of the effort by the nation’s armed forces, the activities of the Boko Haram had spread virtually to all the geographical zones in the North and is fast spreading to the South.
He observed that Boko Haram had been joined by ISWAP and AK-47 carrying herdsmen who had launched very severe and unimaginable attacks on many states pointing out that in most of these states, many lives were lost.
He said: “We know that no patriotic Hausa or Fulani or Northern leader will ever support Boko Haram. We have refused to hold any Northern leader responsible for these killings, rather we believe it is the common responsibility of all to fight Boko Haram, ISWAP and gun weilding herdsmen.”
While thanking the Northern brothers for resisting the temptation for reprisal attack as such would throw Nigeria into blood shed and war, Iwuanyanwu called on security agencies in the country to embark on a full-blown investigation into those killings to expose individuals behind the spilling of blood of innocent citizens.
