‘Igbos No Longer Safe Under Buhari’s Government’
President Muhammadu Buhari[/caption]
The Ohaneze Ndigbo has declared that people from the south-eastern Nigeria no longer feel safe under the current administration.
This is coming against a backdrop of alleged marginalization of the Igbo ethnic group by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government.
THE WHISTLER recalls that Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, had on Tuesday, accused the All Progressives Congress-led government of short-changing the entire Igboland in its federal appointments and allocations.
Advertisement
In a public address by its President-General, Nnia Nwobodo, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo further accused the President Buhari-led government of deliberately sidelining Igbos while appointing heads of security agencies in the country.
“We don’t feel that we are part of this country. The statement I made earlier was not my thinking alone. Every part of that statement was scrutinised line by line by members of the Ohanaeze executive and we agreed this was the situation before it was issued,” Nwodo alleged.
“How can we be comfortable in a country where no Igbo man is heading any of the security services in this country? Not the Nigerian Army, Navy, Air Force, Police, Customs Service (NCS), Immigrations, National Intelligence Agency (NIA), State Security Services (SSS), Federal Road Safety Corps and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
“The impression we have been given is that we are not trusted enough to be put as the head of any security agency.
Advertisement
“Now, if you drive to the South East, we are like a conquered people. In every major town you go into, there is a military checkpoint. They call it Operation Python Dance.
“If they screen you for arms and ammunition, I will understand that it is national security imperative. But they collect money from you. We are forced to pay.
“Between Enugu and Onitsha, there are 17 police checkpoints that I enumerated on one trip. There are police checkpoints, some police and army combined. The commercial vehicle drivers drop the money on the ground.
“They do not care whether the Inspector-General of Police is coming in an on-coming vehicle or that they are being photographed. It does not happen anywhere else in this country. And nobody cares.
“I said it at the 82 Division and I was arrested. I have said that at every public forum anytime I have the opportunity, I will keep harping on this,” he said.
