The apex Igbo socio –cultural organization, Ohaneze Ndigbo, has dissociated itself from the activities of the Biafra agitators, who had been protesting in many cities in the South East and South –South, saying that Biafra died in 1970 with the surrender by General Philip Effiong, to the Nigerian troops.
Addressing reporters in Awka Friday, the chairman, Forum of State Presidents of Ohaneze in the seven Igbo –speaking states, Dr. Chris Eluomunoh said that no right thinking person would support what he called the madness by some youths, who were being deceived to engage in something they cannot finish.
Before now, the youths in the zone had held cities like Aba, Awka, Onitsha, Owerri, Enugu, Abakiliki, Asaba and Portharcourt hostage in the past weeks calling for the release of Nnamdi Kanu, Benjamin Onwuka and others by the federal government.
The youths were doing the demonstrations under the aegis of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) with few other members of the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) involved.
However, the Ohaneze chairman Friday said that what the youths were doing could be described as pure madness, adding that it would have been a different ball game if they were protesting against the bad state of roads instead of agitation for Biafra.
According to Eluemunoh, “Ohaneze as Igbo cultural group cannot support insurgency, we are totally against it and we will never support it.
“Anybody that has any issue with the federal government should go for dialogue with the president and that is why we went for national conference, Nigeria is a one united country and we do not want any other.
“I believe what the youths are doing is to call the attention of the president to see the infrastructural decay in the zone, this region has been abandoned and neglected and not by Buhari, but by previous administrations started by Olusegun Obasanjo which Goodluck Jonathan also tried to bring back.
“Ohaneze is calling on the federal government to declare state of emergency in the zone on roads for purposes of infrastructural development and that is what the youths are saying, we believe and not secession.
“Our president should forget what happened in the last election and Ohaneze is going to give him full support through prayers and other means and in making sure that Nigeria stays as one indivisible entity.
“Therefore, the youths should stop such agitations for Biafra because Biafra died in 1970 and we are saying it again that Ohaneze will never support it,” Eluemunoh warned.
However, the group said if Nnamdi Kanu and others who were spearheading such agitation had committed any offence, they should face the law, but if not, they should be freed.
Furthermore, he debunked the allegation that the youths were being supported by top Igbo politicians, adding that if indeed they were getting any support from anywhere, it should be from outside Nigeria.
He said they believed that such restiveness by the youths could stop if roads like Oba-Okigwe road, Owerri – Portharcourt road which Ohaneze described as the worst in Nigeria were fixed.
“What they call agitation for Biafra is not in the dictionary of Ohaneze Ndigbo and we will never give it a look in, what Ohaneze is saying is that president Buhari’s administration should be supported to move this country forward,” said Eluemunoh.
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