By CHUKWUDI NWEJE
Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has said that there is no truth in the stories circulating that northerners in the South East have been issued quit notices.
t condemned attempts in some quarters of the country to turn ongoing conversations about the carnage caused by suspected Fulani cattle heders as a Confrontation between the North and the South and called on the Northern and Southern elite to desist from inflammatory statements and the canvassing of narratives that could stoke conflict and inflame passions.
It warned that l such would not benefit any part of the country, but would rather leave the entire as he ultimate loser.
“Ohanaze Ndigbo is concerned about recent developments in Nigeria around the activities of herdsmen of Fulani stock said to be foreigners from outside Nigeria who have caused damage across the land and elicited negative reactions. While that is disturbing enough, we are distressed by the tenor of conversations on the subject pushed by persons who should otherwise do better. Many are framing it as a North versus South conflict. This is not correct. We assert that no one in the South, not the least the South East, has issued quit orders to all Northerners or will ask Northerners to leave. Ndigbo are nation builders and not destroyers. Rather, what has happened in both the South West, the South-South, South East and the Middle Belt of Nigeria are plaintive cries of citizens and their governments for lawless inhabitants of our forests and lands to stop criminality. Ohanaeze Ndigbo calls on the elite of Northern and Southern Nigeria to desist from inflammatory rhetorics and the canvassing of narratives that could stoke conflict and inflame passions. No one would gain from the consequences of such idle chatter but Nigeria will lose big time”, the apex Igbo body said.
Chief Chiedozie Alex Ogbonnia, National Publicity Secretary, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide in a statement made available to Daily Sun said that the South East demands that all groups observe due process in their activities.
He added, “Surely, no upright and well-meaning citizens will dispute the imperative of having law-abiding citizens who pursue their vocations without harming others. We declare that our people demand the observance of due process by all groups. We deplore rash and unlawful retaliatory actions. We condemn even more the activities of herdsmen instigating crises in the land through the invasion of farmlands, vandalism, rape, and murders.
We call on Northern leaders to enjoin a return to the lawful herdsmen with whom our communities have interacted in various Hausa settlements across the South East over many decades. It is the same call that citizens are making in the South West, South-South and the North-Central.”
Ogbonnia urged leaders of all the geopolitical zones in the country to desist from sharing wrong narratives and perspectives that would stoke tension in the country.
“Leaders must restrain themselves from sharing the wrong narratives and perspectives. No one is driving Northerners away from the South. Ohanaeze calls on Northern leaders to join in the call against lawlessness and impunity by the few who do not represent the majority”, Ohanaeze said. (Daily Sun)
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