The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council, OYC, on Saturday expressed outrage over the on-going military operation at Orlu in Imo State.
DAILY POST reports that for the past few days, troops of the Nigerian Army were said to have stormed Orlu, combing bushes and forests in search of the members of the Eastern Security Network, an arm of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB. They were alleged to have bombed some places in the process.
The Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma had also come out to say he authorized the military operation.https://dailypost.ng/2021/02/20/ipob-why-i-invited-soldiers-to-orlu-imo-gov-uzodinma/
He said the government discovered that there were deliberate attempts by IPOB to attack Orlu people and the government in the guise that they were looking for Fulani herdsmen.
“That’s why our government decided to invite military to flush out IPOB and their so called ESN. We discovered that there was a camp which IPOB established at Umutanze, Orlu and we sent police to dislodge them,” the Governor said.
Reacting, OYC in a statement issued by its President-General, Mazi Okwu Nnabuike, warned that the life of any Igbo man wasted would attract dire consequences.
He said it was saddening that the military and other security operatives were also using Igboland as a testing ground whereas they were unable to tackle major security challenges starring them in the face in other parts of the country.
Okwu said, “our heart bleeds once again over the news of the mayhem going on in Orlu Imo State. It is quite sad that a sitting Governor is boasting to have been the brain behind such orgy of violence and needles attack on his people.
“It is quite deplorable that while the Federal Government and it’s agents were busy negotiating with terrorists in the North, the same government is busy here clamping down on people demanding for freedom, a clear case of different stroke for different people.
“It is also ironical that the same military which had remained helpless in the face of endless attacks from terrorists up North, only finds its teeth when it come to the Southeast.
“Tens of students were abducted from their school in Niger State and we are yet to see military helicopters hover around the bandits’ camps, rather Sheikh Gunmi and his likes are there romancing the terrorists on behalf of the Federal Government.
“Be that as it may, Governor Hope Uzodinma and any other person involved in this mayhem must know that they would not go scotfree. No matter how long it takes, they would account for every single soul killed by these blood-thirsty security men.”
He urged the Southeast governors and other Igbo leaders not to keep quiet in the face of what he called “a deliberate ploy to provoke Ndigbo into an action that would necessitate another genocide.
“If we maintain mutual silence today because it’s Orlu, when they get done with them, they will move to another part of Igbo land.”
