Ade Adebayo
President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, has lashed out at the Northern Elders Forum over a statement alleging that most violent acts against the northerners are perpetrated by the Igbo.
Nwodo said the leader of NEF, Ango Abdullahi, had made suchan unprovoked outburst which could set the country ablaze.
In a statement by his Media Adviser, Chief Emeka Attamah, Nwodo wondered where and when the Igbo could have killed their northern brothers when there had never been any case of mayhem and killings against Northerners in any Igbo-speaking state.
He challenged Abdullahi to make public facts to substantiate his wild and malicious claim, unless it was intended to set up the Igbo for another round of killings in the North, adding that with the statement, the Igbo in the North were no longer safe.
The Ohanaeze President General reminded Abdullahi that on the contrary, the Igbo have borne the brunt and have been victims of age-long and misguided attacks and bloody orgies by their northern “brothers” at the slightest upheavals in the country, sometimes even as a result of an event outside the country, and no restitution had ever been made for such losses.
Nwodo regretted that the Igbo, apart from innumerable dead ones, have lost property valued at trillions of naira during such senseless attacks in the north, yet they remained the catalysts of development and the unifying cord holding Nigeria together.
The President General told the Northern Elders Forum to exhibit greater caution and wisdom in addressing sensitive national issues like this, rather than stoke further the fire of ethnic violence by making such unguarded, unsubstantiated, garrulous and vitriolic claims capable of igniting fire and breakdown of law and order that could consume the country.
He reminded them that knowing that Nigeria is now a tinderbox, especially with the heightened frayed nerves arising from the unfortunate mismanagement of the fabric of the nation, caution should be the watchword.
Nwodo further reminded Prof Abdullahi that at the twilight of his life, he should espouse salutary views that should bind and heal the wounds of the country so that he would leave behind a better and united Nigeria.
The President General called on the Federal Government to call NEF to order and make them rescind their inflammatory statement to avoid the possible mayhem and confusion it could cause in the country.