Ohanaeze Ndigbo calls for judicial inquiry into killings in Southern Nigeria

The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has called for judicial inquiry into the frequent killings of young men and women by trigger-happy security operatives posted to the Southern part of the country.

President General of Ohanaeze, Chief Nnia Nwodo condemned the recent killing of four in cold blood of four young men by security agents in Aba and Onitsha in the South East, while another was brutally mowed down by a soldier in Warri, Delta state.  The Warri incident led to a reprisal killing of a soldier that culminated in the killing of more people by soldiers.

President General of the Igbo apex body in a statement by his media adviser, Chief Emeka Attamah, expressed great sadness at the frequency and dastardly manner security personnel snuff out life in these otherwise promising young people in their prime.

According Nwodo, it is only in the South that such mindless wastage of human capital takes place often and unabated without the heads of the army and police batting an eyelid.  He therefore, challenged anybody to point out similar occurrences in any part of the North, especially during this period of COVID-19 lockdown.

Also, Nwodo tasked the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, to explain the modalities used by her ministry to determine the distribution of the COVID-19 lockdown palliative. He alleged that the distribution has been shrouded in mystery, and from available information, there was gross imbalance in the three geopolitical zones in the north getting N245.2 billion from the fund for palliative, while three zones in the south got a meagre N52.8 billion. He said that in another clime, this manifest injustice is enough for her to be made to vacate her office.

The President General cited this as another glaring example of lack of equity in the President Buhari administration.  He averred that the distribution of the lockdown palliative is skewed in favour of the north by the declaration that those who have up to N5000 in their bank accounts will not benefit from it, arguing that ownership of that sum does not mitigate the pangs of the lockdown. (Saturday Sun)