An Igbo advocacy group under the aegis of Igbo National Council (INC) has raised alarm and called for a halt of the recent arbitrary and unprovoked arrest of Igbo youths and women by men of the Nigerian army under the guise or suspicion of the people being members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) or linked with the Eastern Security Network.
A statement signed and issued in Owerri on Wednesday April 20 by the worldwide President of the outfit, Mazi Chilos Godsent, and made available to the media, reads inter alia, “the Igbo National Council (INC) has bitterly observed the arbitrary and unprovoked arrest of Igbo Youths and Women in clandestine and neo-Mafia Gestapo styles in some communities in Ohaji-Egbema and Oguta LGAs respectively by the Nigerian Army.
Our investigation revealed that the Nigerian Army has continued to raid some communities in Imo State to effect the arrest of some youths and women who the Army allegedly suspected of being members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) or having link with the Eastern Security Network (ESN).
Information reaching our news desk indicated that the clandestine neo Mafia Gestapo style of arrest of Igbo Youths and Women started since Sunday 18th April 2021 in communities in Agwa Clan and Izombe in Oguta LGA of Imo State are heavily affected.
Consequent upon the above, we call on Governor Hope Uzodinma and President Muhammad Buhari to quickly intervene and stop the Army from further raiding and arresting Youths and Women of these communities on allegation of being members of IPOB or having link with ESN. We would not want the repeat of the Oyigbo saga in Rivers State where over five hundred Igbo Youths and Women were arrested, abducted and taken to a secret detention base in the Northern region of Nigeria where some of them are alleged to have died of trauma and torture and till now many have not returned.
We note that the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended) Chapter Four (Fundamental Rights) gives citizens of Nigeria certain inalienable Rights which the Nigeria President and Imo State Governor swore to defend and protect. We are also calling on all well meaning people of Imo State, Igbo Nation and Nigeria in general to quickly rise up now to condemn the ongoing extra-judicial killings of Igbo Youths and Women which is being carried out by the Nigerian Army being serviced and sustained with tax payers money”.
