South-East insecurity requires regional strategies to solve — HURIWA

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has faulted the Government of Anambra State and that of other south-eastern states for not joining hands to end the raging terrorism waged against Igbo people by unknown forces.

HURIWA said in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday and signed by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, that the failure of the Governors of the South Eastern States to work synergistically and collectively as a formidable front with a common goal of identifying and then rooting out the forces responsible for the terrorism targeted against Igbo people was responsible for the heightened state of insecurity, which the group said, was “widening at the speed of lightening and moving from one portion of South East to the other.”

The rights group said the targeted killings, including the beheading of the House of Assembly member representing Aguata State Constituency of Anambra State, Mr. Okechukwu Okoye, has absolutely nothing to do with the agitation for self-determination for Biafra land as canvassed by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). “The killings are pure acts of terrorism and must be tackled as such,” HURIWA maintained.

The rights group further said: “We absolutely condemn the rising spate of targeted killings and destructions of public infrastructure in Anambra State and other parts of South East of Nigeria.  We implore the Governors of the South East of Nigeria to forget about their political differences and think about the wellbeing of the motherland of Ndigbo and settle down to work out a common strategy to battle this scourge of coordinated and brazen violence which is directed at the heart of the Igbo people with the aim of destabilising the region and thereby making the hundreds of thousands of able-bodied young men and women who are gainfully employed with their immeasurable skills to become jobless and for Igboland to become desolate.

“The political leaders of Igboland, beginning with the governors, elected legislators and civil rights leaders; including traditional, religious and cultural leaders must now settle down in a noiseless place to work out the correct strategies for tackling these threats including the engagement of tested and trusted private security and forensic investigation operatives to uncover the people doing all these destruction and killings in the South East of Nigeria.”

HURIWA affirmed too that: “The Governors of the Igbo States must not spare resources to find out the exact forces that are destroying Igboland because these bloodbath is not about agitation for the freedom of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu nor does these have anything to do with the activities of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) or even the Eastern Security Network. We believe that IPOB is not behind these attacks.

“The South East leaders need to convince the armed forces to work with all groups irrespective of status to unravel the exact persons unleashing violence on Igboland. If the Armed forces of Nigeria is not an occupying force in the South East of Nigeria, then they need to work in partnership with all groups determined to work towards restoration of stability, peace and civil governance devoid of insurgency of terrorists determined to destroy Igboland. We urge President Muhammadu Buhari to remove the labelling of IPOB as a terrorist group so the group alongside many others in the South East can help out to eradicate the pestilence of terrorism afflicting Igboland.”