In response to allegations that Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), is being poisoned by the Department of State Services (DSS), Ohanaeze Ndigbo issued a warning on Saturday to people preparing to burn down government buildings in the Southeast.
Ohanaeze issued a warning that it would not support attempts to start a new civil war in the Southeast or the demolition of government buildings in the area.
The Secretary-General of Ohanaeze, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, talked with DAILY POST in response to a popular WhatsApp message that claimed Kanu was being poisoned while in DSS prison and that some youth want to set fire to government facilities in the Southeast.
According to Isiguzoro: “This is an unfortunate development that some people would allege that Nnamdi Kanu is poisoned. Ohanaeze Ndigbo can neither confirm nor deny this allegation that the DSS is poisoning Kanu, but what we can’t condone in the Southeast was a voice note that was circulated that some miscreants and street urchins staying in Europe and America inciting the people of the region to burn down public properties. This is something Ohanaeze Ndigbo will never condone.
“It has come to a point where these miscreants have pushed the people to the wall, and the people of the Southeast will fight and fish them out. This is a very strong warning to parents that they should hold their wards, and anybody who disrupts the law and peace of the land would be made to face the full weight of the law by Ohanaeze in conjunction with Southeast governors.
“There are processes in which we are going to confirm the allegation by IPOB members that Kanu was poisoned, and I don’t believe that such an allegation is meant to incite the public to turn the Southeast into another Somalia.
“The people of the Southeast are known to be peaceful and anybody that wants to remind us of what happened 53 years ago about the Biafra war would be used as a sacrificial lamb and a scapegoat. We want to tell Ndigbo to maintain peace and allow Southeast governors to investigate these allegations.”
Ohanaeze advised the governors of the Southeast to detain and punish anyone found seeking to disturb the calm in the region.
He stated that Ohanaeze will combat any agitators who used violence to try to start a conflict in the Southeast.
“We call on the governors of the Southeast to live up to the full responsibility as the chief security officers of their various states, and anybody caught trying to incite or burn public building must ensure that such a person is apprehend, prosecuted and made to face the full weight of the law.
“Ndigbo will fight every violent agitator, be it unknown or known gunmen, Ndigbo is now ready for community networking because we are not ready to fight another civil war with Nigeria, and anybody that wants to start another war and nobody will push Ndigbo into another war. Anybody who wants to start another violence in the Southeast should be apprehended and dealt with. We are calling community leaders and traditional rulers, religious leaders, and opinion leaders that they should go and fish out anybody planning to engage and destroy the peace and tranquillity of the Southeast.
“We can’t afford to be refugees and have IDP camps in the Southeast; this time, we are going to fight them and ensure we extinguish them that want to consume us,” he added.
