Ohanaeze warns Buhari govt over alleged ‘shoot at sight order’ on Igbo youths

Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has strongly warned against an alleged “Shoot at Sight Order” given to the Nigerian soldiers as a way to engage the Igbo youths in the oncoming week.

Reports emerged at the weekend concerning the new secret plan which would commence from Orlu in Imo State.

DAILY POST reports that the Army is yet to react to the said order.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo had now described it as “very disturbing”, lamenting the pattern of deployment of northern-muslim military officers to the Eastern region, which according to the organisation, lends credence to the alleged plot to commence ‘Shoot at Sight’ on Igbo youth.

The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation pointed to the fact that the Nigerian army has posted Northern Muslims as commanders over its operations and brigades in Anambra, Imo, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Benue, Edo, Delta and Rivers.

“In Anambra State, the Cantonment Commandant of the 302 Artillery Regiment, Onitsha, is Col Abdulsalam Abubakar Sambo, a Hausa-Fulani Muslim; while in Imo State, the Brigade Commander of 34 Brigade, Obinze, is Brig Gen Ibrahim Tukura, another northerner; in Abia State, the Brigade Commander of 14 Brigade, Ohafia, is Brig Gen M. Ibrahim, still, a northerner; while in Akwa Ibom State, the Brigade Commander of 2 Brigade, Uyo, is Brig Gen Faruk Mijinyawa, another northerner,” Ohanaeze said, describing this as “truly worrisome!”

In a statement signed by Chiedozie Alex Ogbonnia, National Publicity Secretary, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the President-General of the organisation, Ambassador Prof. George Obiozor, admonished the Nigerian government to “learn a lesson from history by not fighting an unwinnable war against nationalism but seek possible peaceful options that are the only solution that guarantees national unity and peaceful coexistence.”

Obiozor lamented that “Subnational consciousness or ethnocentric nationalism which is a dangerous form of nationalism to national unity has taken over Nigeria.”

The organisation warned that Nigeria’s dream of unity is fast receding and with violence, crises and conflicts across the country.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo said that the problems Nigeria is being faced with are products of sustained orchestrated injustice in governance.

“The problem with Nigeria in general and the Igbo in particular is located in injustice and the simple solution lays in manifest dialogue, equity and justice,” Ohanaeze noted.

Ohanaeze further warned that the current administration that the alleged “Shoot at Sight Order” to “soldiers on Igbo youth is a call for another pogrom and genocide.”

The group demanded that the Federal Government refrain from the use of force in resolving the present national crises.

Obiozor warned: “History shows that military and violent means to solve the national question is bound to fail as it leads to further national fractionalization, anarchy and eventual or inevitable disintegration, as in all Empires or multi-national states or countries.”

With banditry, kidnapping, terrorism and other forms criminalities ravaging the Northern region, the Old Eastern Region is now experiencing its worse state of insecurity.

There have been daily reports on attacks on police formations and other security points and killing of officers by those simply identified as unknown gunmen.

Just yesterday, unidentified hoodlums attcked a police station at Ubani township Market in Umuahia North, Abia State and razed it down.

As the attacks on security operatives and police stations in the region continue unabated, over 10 police officers were killed at the weekend in Rivers and Akwa Ibom States.