Statement In Response To The Resurgence Of Violent Separatist Disturbances In The South East

OVERVIEW

The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) has taken stock of events unfolding in Nigeria, noting especially, the unrelenting disturbances created by certain interest groups in the South-East, ignited and incessantly fanned and executed through the force of arms and terrorist tactics by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and co-authors of mindless violence and separatism.

CNG has carefully watched and studied these events and actions being perpetrated against the Nigerian state, against Nigerians collectively, and against northerners in particular, with considerable restraint and maturity.

Of late however, with the brutal enforcement of a week-long illegal stay-at-home order that mostly affects other Nigerians living as minorities in Southeastern communities, and the renewed resolve by Igbo leaders and elders to secure the unconditional release of IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu, matters have reached a point whereby silence has become complicity and inaction no longer an option.

The Igbo’s nefarious objective manifested when they hijacked the lear and legitimate #EndSARS protests, incited the violence and destruction that followed in its wake, resulting in mass killings of security personnel, unprovoked evictions, attacks and killings of people of other regions particularly the North, and near breakdown of law and order in the South East and mostly Lagos in the South West.

Supported morally and politically by the pliant and affrighted Igbo elites, politicians, business persons, traditional and religious leaders and the vast majority of the Igbo ethnic group with a long held agenda, Kanu called for carnage, killings and violence on Nigerian citizens and national security infrastructure.
In the South-East and parts of South-South, several police personnel and innocent citizens were massacred, prisons vandalised and inmates set free.

Not less than 22 policemen, seven soldiers and 59 innocen civilians were killed in October 2020 according to the toll announced by the then President Muhammadu Buhari during an emergency meeting with former Nigerian leaders.

According to the IG at that time, 205 critical national security assets, corporate facilities and private property were attacked, burnt or vandalised with 10 firearms including eight AK 47 rifles stolen.

In Lagos coordinated attacks, IPOB hoodlums in Lagos State incited by Kanu started their activities by attacking peaceful #EndSARS protesters and innocent citizens and destroying assets resulting in:

1. Burning of ssets belonging to the current President, Tinubu specifically mentioned by Kanu including the headquarters of Television Continental (TVC) , while the office of The Nation newspaper was torched.
2. Burning of 17 police stations including the Idimu, Igando, Layeni, Denton, Ilenbe Hausa, Ajah, Amukoko, Ilasa, Cele Outpost under Ijesha, disbanded SARS office under Ajegunle, Ebute-Ero, Mushin (Olosan), Ojo, Ajegunle, Ikotun, and Ojodu and properties within their premises including vehicles destroyed, weapons carted away.
3. Burning of the oldest court in Nigeria, the Federal High Court at Igbosere, case files burnt in the fire, others carted away.
4. The palace of the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu was also attacked, staff of office and other valuables stolen and Oba Akiolu forced to escape.
5. The family house of the Lagos State governor at Omididun Street, Lagos Island, was burnt.
6. Bus terminals burnt and destroyed, the Ajeromi-Ifeolodun local government council building and more than 20 cars within the premises burnt.
7. Office of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) set ablaze, the dockyard at Apapa attacked, valuable items stolen, vehicles and other properties burnt.
8. Lagos State Theatre at Oregun was attacked, popular malls and supermarkets vandalised and looted, several shops broken into in many areas and goods carted away.

Therefore, for the very Igbo leaders whose support emboldened Kanu’s actions to seek audience with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to press for the termination of his criminal trial and eventual unconditional release is the peak of audacious impunity.

OBSERVATIONS

With these preliminary observations, it is inevitable that the following conclusions and inferences should be drawn from the diabolical scheme planned and exhibited in the actions and clamours of IPOB, supported morally and politically by the larger population of the Igbo ethnic group and pushing Nigeria to the precipice.

1. That the renewed determination to secure the release of Kanu without trial is part of a wider agenda of destruction and collective mayhem relentlessly pursued by the Igbo perpetrators of violence, fervently hoping it will engulf the entire country and bring about another civil war, mass killings and suffering of innocent people.
2. That the resurgence of agitations and disturbances that have been ongoing ceaselessly since the inception of the current administration of President Tinubu, are aimed at discrediting the government after having failed in the bid to stop its emergence by giving it a meagre seven percent of the total votes cast in the entire South-East.

OUR STAND

Convinced that the resurgence of violent separatist agitations by IPOB and its ilk in the South-East represent a much wider conspiracy for the violent determination of the Igbo to see through the destabilization of Nigeria cannot be avoided or deferred any longer without terrible consequences, the CNG hereby resolves to:

1. The Federal authorities must resist the Igbo campaign of blackmail using Kanu’s release as a precondition for sustainable peace in the land; and to ask the following questions:

a. How would the relations of the over 500 personnel of the various paramilitary organs who were indiscriminately attacked and killed while on duty posts at various checkpoints as a result of the incitement by Kanu.

b. As the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces how what words would Mr President use to encourage and retain other officers and men of the various forces if the man who incited the killing of their colleagues were to be released without even a trial?

c. What would be the status of the families and community members of those killed, dispossessed or displaced as a result of the hate campaigns and propaganda conducted by Nnamdi Kanu and sponsored by his regional and ethnic collaborators?

d. How would the authorities react were other regions and people to be encouraged to take the law into their hands in the same manner as Kanu and IPOB?

e. What would Nigeria become if leaders and elders of other ethnicities chose to shied their errant sons from justice by demanding their unconditional release from custody?

2. Call on the federal authorities to disregard the unpatriotic calls by the Igbo leaders for Kanu’s release, and to remain resolute in seeing through his prosecution along with his sponsors, backers and collaborators for the heinous crimes against the Nigerian state and innocent Nigerian citizens, so as not to set the wrong precedent of regional leaders interfering with the course of justice.
3. Remind the President that by aceding to the demands for Kanu’s release, his government would be exposed to questions as to the status of the innocent Nigerian citizens of other regions killed, dispossessed and displaced as a result of Kanu’s incitement.
4. Call on the Federal Government to intensify ongoing action to disband all militias and armed groups in the Sorth East and other parts of Nigeria, by resort to the use of force if needs be, to ensure that no group has the capacity to challenge the state in its prerogative to maintain law and order, and protect citizens’ lives and properties.

Signed:
Abdul-Azeez Suleiman,
CNG Spokesperson

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