Shoot At Sight Order To Soldiers On Igbo Youth A Call For Another Genocide – Ohanaeze

Ohanaeze Ndigbo has frowned against the ‘shoot at sight’ order given to the Nigerian soldiers on how to engage the Igbo youths in South East Region.

The President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Prof. George Obiozor, stated this in a statement made available to Journalists by its National Publicity Secretary, Chiedozie Alex Ogbonnia, in Enugu on Monday.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo warned that Shoot at Sight Order to soldiers on Igbo youth is a call for another pogrom and genocide.

He thereby urged the federal government to refrain from the use of force in resolving the present national crises.

He said “History shows that military and violent means to solve the national question is bound to fail as it leads to further national fractionalization, anarchy and eventual or inevitable disintegration, as in all Empires or multi-national states or countries”. Obiozor warns:

“The Sahara Reporters, May 8, elaborated on the new secret plan of shoot at sight order which by the grace of God has come to the public domain. The report further revealed that the exercise will commence from Orlu in Imo State, South East Nigeria.

“This is very disturbing. The pattern of deployment of northern military officers to the South-East lends credence to the above report.

“Sahara Reporters revealed that in preparation for the above, the Nigerian army  has posted Northern Muslims as commanders over its operations and brigades in Anambra, Imo, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Benue, Edo, Delta and Rivers. In Anambra State, the Cantonment Commandant of the 302 Artillery Regiment, Onitsha, is Col Abdulsalam Abubakar Sambo, a Hausa-Fulani Muslim; while in Imo State, the Brigade Commander of 34 Brigade, Obinze, is Brig Gen Ibrahim Tukura, another northerner; in Abia State, the Brigade Commander of 14 Brigade, Ohafia, is Brig Gen M. Ibrahim, still, a northerner; while in Akwa Ibom State, the Brigade Commander of 2 Brigade, Uyo, is Brig Gen Faruk Mijinyawa, another northerner. This is truly worrisome,” he said.

The President General admonished the Nigerian government to “learn a lesson from history by not fighting an unwinnable war against nationalism but seek possible peaceful options that are the only solution that guarantees national unity and peaceful coexistence”

Obiozor lamented that “subnational consciousness or ethnocentric nationalism which is a dangerous form of nationalism to national unity has taken over Nigeria”. And that “the dream of Nigeria unity is receding and fading fast with violence, crises and conflicts”

“Ohanaeze Ndigbo is unequivocal that the current problems confronting Nigerian, eg ethnic militia, agitation for secession, insurgency, etc are a product of sustained orchestrated injustice in governance. For instance, Senator Shehu Sani, the former senator for Kaduna central, vehemently decried that the Igbo have been systematically marginalised since the civil war.”

Speaking in Kaduna at a meeting organised by the Association of Eze-Ndigbo in the Diaspora on Saturday, May 8, 2021, Sani described the marginalisation as a “collective punishment”. There has been a systemic exclusion and marginalisation of your people, stemming from the historical Biafra war. This is a collective punishment”, he declared.