Southeast Leaders Should Speak Up Against ‘Misguided’ Youths Attacking Northerners –Wamakko

The silence by Southeast leaders on insecurity in their region means their ‘tacit approval for the activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra’, Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, former governor of Sokoto State, said weekend.

The former governor, in a statement entitled ‘A Clarion Call on Igbo leaders: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH’, made available to THE WHISTLER in Enugu, urged Southeast leaders to caution their youths before the situation gets out of hand.

He said, “What could have been dismissed as the action of a few ‘misguided’ youths is now clearly becoming an agenda for which there is almost a wholesome backing from those who should have cautioned their children and nip the emerging crisis in the bud.

“Regrettably but curiously, our friends and compatriots, leaders of Igbo extraction, have remained dead silent in the face of increasing assault and effort by their own people to stock a nationwide mayhem.

“I want to loudly call them out to speak up. Silence is no longer acceptable in the face of this clear danger and threat against the country.”

He also called for the stoppage of attacks on northerners in the Southeast.

According to him, since the killing of Mr Ahmed Gulak in Owerri, some northern traders had also fallen victims of the chaos.

He said, “In the past week alone, there have been three incidences of arsons and looting against property belonging to northern traders travelling in the Southeast.

“Of late, a truck of onions with about 500 bags of the commodity was ransacked by members of the IPOB in a daylight robbery in Owerri.

“They are largely under-reported perhaps because the victims are not prominent and partly because of a deliberate culture of silence in a section of the media about what is happening.

“Rather, we have been restraining our own people who are victims of these atrocities by preaching patience and peace.”