Kanu, Igboho: Ohanaeze Ndigbo reacts to their arrest

Igbo social political group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has said Nigerian security operatives has demonstrated that they can bite when there is the need to do with the recent arrests of the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, and his Yoruba Nation counterpart, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho

But the organisation, in a statement by its spokesman, Alex Ogbonnia, lamented that the security operatives have not deployed the energy they used in the arrest of the two men against Boko Haram insurgents, marauding herdsmen and bandits in North East, North West and other parts of the country.

But the organisation also accused the Federal Government of pursuing peace without justice, noting that the it has failed to address the reasons that gave birth to the agitations for which the men were arrested.

“We recall that Chief Sunday Igboho emerged in the scene because he could not endure the daily menace of the Fulani herdsmen in the Yoruba localities for a very long time. The herdsmen would kill, maim and rape women at random. All entreaties to the Presidency for a swift action against the AK-47 wielding herdsmen appeared to fall on deaf ears. Then, Igboho, in a patriotic heroic zeal, intervened to save the rural farmers, women and children from the daily menace of the herdsmen.

“The rate at which the herdsmen destroy farm crops, attack villages, kill the indigenes and forcefully occupy their ancestral lands is most callous, unconscionable and condemnable. This is where the intervention of the presidency is most needed; and, of course, the Igboho paradox.

“Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, led by Ambassador Professor George Obiozor, has maintained the need for the Presidency to embrace equity, justice and fairness in public policy formulations and execution.

“And that the various forms of agitation in Nigeria is an effect and not a cause in itself. The cause of the agitations is the obvious injustice in federal public policies.

“Measures should rather be taken to address the causes of the agitations; and, only then, can Nigeria have peace and sustainable economic growth.

“On the other hand, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho, who wittingly or unwittingly are now seen as heroes by their people, are but the products of unjust society.

“Therefore, a concerted effort in search of the Kanus and the Igbohos, without addressing the basis of the agitation, is an effort in futility. Otherwise, other Kanus and Igbohos will sooner than later emerge,” Ohanaeze stated.