Kogi Socio-cultural group, Ujache Igala Association has
called for arrest and prosecution of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB,
leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu for allegedly mapping out Kogi and Benue states as
part of Biafra territory.
They, therefore, demanded his immediate arrest.
In a communiqué signed by the group’s National Chairman,
Chief Goodman Akwu and Secretary, which was made available to journalists in
Abuja, the group described the claim as ‘madness of the 21st century’.
It wondered the parameters that made Biafra agitators think
that Kogi and Benue states were part of them.
“There is no cosmogony affiliation or cultural affinity
whatsoever of Biafra with Kogi or Benue and mapping out those states as part of
Biafra cannot be less than a show of hallucination.
“It is high time the government overcame its insouciance and
nipped this audacity of seditious act on time”, the group said.
The group warned against a repeat of civil war which
happened between 1967 and 1970 “when most of those class of Nnamdi Kanu and his
co-travellers have not yet been born,” saying the elderly ones in Igbo land who
saw it all and escaped by the whiskers were not fair to the younger generations
for not telling them the truth, hence, the zone was gradually being receded
into anarchy.
They demanded from Biafra agitators to explain how they
arrived at making Kogi and Benue state part of Biafra geographical area, while
reminding them of Kogi and Benue people’s historical antecedents of warfare.
“Kogi and Benue people in the middle belt are aborigines of
Kwararafa Kingdom and it is important that our historical antecedents of
warfare should be understood as well as the Biafra agitators should be reminded
that these are no cowards. It is incomprehensible making Kogi and Benue as part
of Biafra, they should try other zones.
“We have noticed with rude shock that the Igbo
socio-cultural group, Ohaneze Ndigbo was directly supporting IPOB instead of
advising them on the consequence their action would generate”, they said.
The group pointed that democratic regime and freedom of
expression did not support secession under any guise as it were, explaining
that the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu had breached the bail conditions that left
him off the hook.
It added that IPOB leader’s dual citizenship still subsisted
despite court decision, saying that if anything happened, he would leave the
country.
The group called on the Inspector General of Police, Alhaji
Ibrahim Idris to arrest the IPOB leader for prosecution within two weeks,
failure with which they would take to streets in peaceful protests.
According to them, government was under-estimating
activities of IPOB, MASSOB and others at the peril of the nation, urging that
the Police, Department of State Services (DSS) to investigate cache of arms
recently ceased by the Nigeria Customs in Lagos.
They asked the Nigeria Customs to disclose publicly, the
outcome of their investigations into those behind the importation of arms,
noting that rumours were linking the arms to IPOB.
“We suspect complicity on part of IPOB in the recent seizure
of cache of arms by the Nigeria Customs and we call on the Nigeria Police and
Department of State Services (DSS) for a thorough investigation”, the group
maintained.
By Samson Atekojo Usman
