PRESS RELEASE
The President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Chief Nnia Nwodo, has called for a high-powered judicial inquiry into the frequent killing of young men and women by trigger-happy security operatives posted to the Southern part of the country.
In a press statement, Chief Nwodo recalled that in the past few days alone, four vibrant young men were killed in cold blood by security agents in Aba and Onitsha, while another young man was brutally mowed down by a soldier in Warri which led to a reprisal killing of a soldier that culminated in the killing of more people by soldiers.
The President General expressed great sadness at the frequency and dastardly manner these security personnel snuff out life in these otherwise promising young people in their prime.
He said that it is only in the South that such mindless wastage of human capital takes place often and unabated without the heads of the army and police batting an eyelid, and challenged anybody to point out similar occurrences in any part of the North, especially during this period of Covid-19 lockdown.
Chief Nwodo stated that the aggressive actions of security operatives were steadily pushing young men, especially in the South East, to the wall and could elicit reprisal violence from them, adding that any group not wanted in a union has the right to opt out of it.
Similarly, the President General has tasked the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, to explain the modalities used by her ministry to determine the distribution of the Covid-19 lockdown palliative.
Chief Nwodo said that the distribution has been shrouded in mystery, and from available information, there is gross imbalance in the three geopolitical zones in the north getting #245.2 billion from the fund for palliative, while three zones in the south got a meagre #52.8 billion.
He said that in another clime, this manifest injustice is enough for her to be made to vacate her office.
The President General cited this as another glaring example of lack of equity in the President Buhari administration.
He averred that the distribution of the lockdown palliative is skewed in favour of the north by the declaration that those who have up to #5000 in their bank accounts will not benefit from it, arguing that ownership of that sum does not mitigate the pangs of the lockdown.
Chief Nwodo further observed that it took Covid-19 to accentuate the duplicity in governance in the present administration in the country where the people in the north have been paid five thousand naira monthly for the five years of the administration to the exclusion of the neglected and second class citizens of the South, and urged the Federal Government to take steps to redress this obvious injustice to give other parts of the country a sense of belonging.
Chief Emeka Attamah
Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President General
Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide