South East leaders petition US, UN over alleged ill-treatment of Ndigbo in Nigeria

Eminent personalities from Igboland under the aegis of Alaigbo Development Foundation and South-East Elders’ Forum have tendered a petition to the United States House of Representatives and the United Nations headquarters, over alleged ill-treatment of Igbo people in Nigeria.

This was disclosed by a member of the delegation, Dr Dozie Ikedife, who said that the delegate who tendered the petition spent some weeks in the US to make sure that the message was delivered.

“The two bodies made up of traditional rulers, religious leaders, academicians, technocrats and leaders of thought in many fields of human endeavour in Igbo land were concerned about the ethnic group, Nigeria, Africa and the rest of the world,” Ikedife said.

Part of the petition submitted by the Igbo leaders and made available to newsmen by Ikedife read, “We have suffered genocidal crimes committed against us by Nigerians, especially those of the Northern Nigeria, dating back to 1945.

“This climaxed in the pogrom of 1966/67. By the general agreement of the people of Eastern Nigeria, we decided to distance ourselves from the rest of Nigeria, based on many waves of unjustified killings.

“We, therefore, elected to be known as people of independent state of Biafra in 1967.

“Immediately after this, Nigeria with her allies, declared war on this young state of Biafra.

“Unprepared, unexpected, we were forced to defend ourselves for 30 months before we were overwhelmed by complete blockade, starvation, heavy indiscriminate bombing of churches, markets and other public places.

“We were forced to surrender to Nigeria’s allied forces on January 12, 1970, to save the rest of the Igbo population from complete eradication.

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“Despite the window dressing declaration of ‘no victor, no vanquished and the policy of rehabilitation, reconstruction and reintegration, economic strangulation and systematic exclusion of the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria (Biafra) had followed since then.

“Unprovoked, unjustifiable sporadic killings of the Igbo had continued with instances of the Igbo massacre in Jos and the Kano genocide which culminated in the 1966 pogrom.”

The renewed demand for Biafra as an independent country from Nigeria by the Nnamdi Kanu-led Indigenous Peoples of Biafra and other groups in the South-East has continued to gain followership among the people of the region in recent times despite the Federal Government’s insistence that the unity of Nigeria is non-negotiable.

 

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