…Want Tinubu to release Nnamdi Kanu now
A call has gone to the Bola Ahmed Tinubu led federal government to pay adequate compensation and pay attention to rebuild the old Eastern Region of Nigeria over the devastating effects of the civil war.
Chief Engr Ejike Iwu, who holds the chieftaincy title of Onuigbo Ndigbo Gburugburu (traditional spokesperson of Ndigbo), made this call following the revelation of a former military President of Nigeria, General Ibrahim Babangida (retired) in his memoir titled: ‘A Journey in Service’, that the first Coup d’etat in the country on January 15, 1966, was not an Igbo Coup.
According to Onuigbo Ndigbo Gburugburu, the tag that the January 15 coup d’etat is an Igbo Coup, led to the Pogrom in many parts of the country where South Easterners, especially Igbos, were massacred.
He decried that the hate against Ndigbo sue to that singular false narrative is what eventually led to the unfortunate civil war as well as the alleged marginalization of the old Eastern Region, especially Ndigbo.
The Igbo Traditional Spokesperson further disclosed that the perceived hatred against Ndigbo by many is what had led to the clamour for self-government by the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and later Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), adding that many Igbos including women and youths have lost their lives due to the clashes between these agitators and state security agencies.
Chief Engr Iwu called on the federal government to apologize to the old Eastern Region as a way of assuaging their feelings, stressing that compensation should equally be paid to them.
“The federal government should pay compensation to the people of old Eastern Region as well as kick-start a programme to rebuild their economy which was destroyed during the war”.
Continuing, he lamented the deaths of millions of people mainly children and women due to the war and the resultant kwashiokor, and the abandoned properties saga.
“Also, there are lots of policies that are anti Igbo. Look at the roads in the Eastern parts of the country. Look at appointments into key and strategic positions. All these show that Ndigbo are still being treated with hatred, which was ignited with that falsehood of an Igbo coup d’etat”, he stated.
Onuigbo Ndigbo Gburugburu further called on President Tinubu to show that he feels for Ndigbo over the age long hatred as a result of this same lie, to release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu without delay.
