ASETU invites ICC, EU, AU, US, ECOWAS on Buhari’s alleged threats to Igbo

By CHINONSO ALOZIE, Owerri

…Says stop injustices, Biafra agitations will end immediately

The Association of South East Town Unions, ASETU, on Thursday, said that it would invite the international communities on the statement President Muhammadu Buhari, made about the Igbos in the Southeast region of the country, during Arise TV interview.

The ASETU, Chairman, Emeka Diwe, stated this to newsmen in Owerri, in his reaction to Buhari’s outing on Arise TV.

Diwe’s grouse was that for Buhari to mention that Igbos properties were scattered all over the country, could mean to them, as a genocidal plot.

He however, called on President Buhari to stop marginalization against Igbo and that the agitations for Biafra republic will end the next day.

ASETU argued that, “By reminding Ndigbo of our assets that are scattered across the country, President Buhari has only succeeded at giving a tacit support to the rest of Nigeria to be hostile to the Igbo and our interests wherever they are found. This is unfortunate. The fact that Ndigbo live freely everywhere in Nigeria and develop everywhere they find themselves should have made Buhari to know that Ndigbo are better Nigerians and they are the adhesive that holds the country together, and they have contributed to national unity and progress in concrete terms more than any other ethnic nationality in Nigeria.

“The threats which we are now getting from President Buhari suggest that there is a plot to commit another genocide against our people. We demand that President Buhari should immediately withdraw those threats against Ndigbo, tender apologies to our people and put off every plan for their execution.

“We hereby invite the International Criminal Court, the United Nations, the United States of America, the European Union, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to intervene in the Nigerian situation and save the innocent, poor, marginalized and defenceless Igbo people from the looming genocide against us,” Diwe said.

The group continued on what have been fueling agitations for Biafra saying: “It is an aberration that in the past six years no South Easterner has been appointed into the headship of any security establishment in the country. Why would President Buhari talk of our people growing through the ranks when he does not respect the ranks? How many Igbo military officers were seniors to the current Chief of Army Staff? Why were they not selected? Instead, some of them are reportedly about to be laid off. How many Igbo police officers were seniors to the current Inspector General of Police? Why were they all bypassed? The type of injustices our people suffer in Nigeria cannot be found in any modern nation.

“The country would go to borrow money abroad, and Igboland would not be captured in the projects on which the loan would be expended. Yet, the oil and gas through which the country hopes to repay the loan are mostly found in our land. Which other zone in the country has five states? Only South East! The noise you hear about the construction of second Niger Bridge now suggests that they really don’t see it as a national project.

“Rather as a favour being done to Ndigbo. How many rail lines are currently being done in Igboland? We have a Government that is instead constructing railways through the Sahara to other countries. Of what economic significant are they to the country! So, those who are perpetuating this unfair system against our people are the sponsors of secession.”

It was their view that, “We have severally posited that if the injustices against Ndigbo in Nigeria are erased today, the agitations will end the next day. The ferment of Biafra that you see today is therefore the symptom of a disease afflicted on Ndigbo by this Government and the previous ones.

“On a daily basis, Fulani herdsmen kill our people. They rape our women. They sack our communities. They destroy our farmlands and destroy our crops. Our livelihoods are now sorely imperiled by the activities of the herdsmen.” *Credit: Vanguard