Igbo women, under the aegis of Igbo Women Assembly (IWA), have called on President Bola Tinubu to order the dismantling of all military checkpoints in the Southeast region and end the siege mentality that has consistently triggered the abrasive, jerky behaviours that have led to frequent deadly confrontations between Southeast youths and security agents.
The women also took umbrage at the continued detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), who has been in DSS custody in the past three years over charges that courts of competent jurisdiction in Nigeria have since quashed and ordered his release, calling on President Tinubu to do what is ‘right and proper’ and let Kanu go.
And irked by the continued incarceration of Chief Fredrick Nwajiogu, Eze Ndigbo of Ajao Estate Lagos, whose only offence was threatening, in April last year, in the heat of the post-election violence in Lagos, to invite IPOB to Lagos to protect Ndigbo and their property if the police could no longer protect the Igbo from premeditated attacks on their shops and persons other property by hoodlums in Lagos.
Making the demands at a press conference in Enugu on Friday (yesterday, August 16), the women who wore mournful looks, decried what they called maltreatment of Ndigbo in Nigeria.
President of IWA, Lolo Nneka Chimezie, who addressed newsmen in the company of other leaders of the Assembly, said it is unacceptable for Kanu, Nwajiogu and other IPOB members to languish in prison because of their utterances while other Nigerians from other ethnic nationalities who uttered and continue to utter worse things are moving about freely and even feted by the authorities with lucrative appointments.
“The purpose of our gathering here today is to bring to the attention of the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the ill-treatment the South Easterners have been receiving from Nigeria,” Chimezie remonstrated.
“We frown at the APC-led government because it has not been fair to the South Easterners. They said our sin is that we did not vote for them and I don’t know anywhere in the world where equity sharing is based on how people vote.
“Again this very government ever since they took over, the treatment they’ve been giving to the Southeast we don’t like it, the way they treat matters concerning us.”
She gave instances of what brought about Chief Nwajiogu’s incarceration saying, “We are aware that during the last election in Lagos after the presidential election there was a lot of maltreatment of the Igbo in Lagos, destruction of their property, even killing of some people. That prompted Chief Fredrick Nwajiogu, the Eze Ndigbo of Ajao Estate, to, out of frustration, threaten that if the Nigerian government could not protect the Igbo in Lagos, he might be forced to invite IPOB to come and protect them in Lagos. (For that) he was arrested and incarcerated and they said they were charging him for treason!
“But at the same time we’ve watched other people from other ethnic nationalities make such comments even worse against the Igbo and nothing has been done to them. People like NC Oluomo, Bayo Ononuga and Asari Dokubo.”
The IWA President stressed that Igbo women could no longer bear all the maltreatment against Ndigbo and had to speak out.
She added: “We want the federal government of Nigeria to release all the political prisoners of the South East extraction in the persons of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, Chief Fredrick Nwajiogu and the IPOB members in their custody since (other) people can come out and make utterances (and nothing is done to them). These are people (Kanu and Nwajiogu) who made utterances but nothing incriminating was caught with them — you didn’t catch them with guns, you didn’t catch them with anything, they only made utterances and other people outside Igbo have made even worse utterances but they were not arrested.
“As mothers, it pains to know that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu also has a wife and children, Chief Fredrick Nwajiogu has a wife and children and we feel their pains and as mothers we join our voices to plead for their release.
“We don’t know who is taking care of those children and how their wives are surviving. We are asking the federal government to release them or we term it that the quest of IPOB is justified. If they continue to treat some with kid gloves and others with iron rods, which means the actions of IPOB are justified.
“Again, we demand that they (federal government) withdraw all military checkpoints on roads in the Southeast and reduce police checkpoints in the zone.
“We will be very glad if the federal government of Nigeria will address these issues.
“We also urge them to run an inclusive government where they will include Southeasterners and make sure they practice the equity formula.”
