By Pamela Eboh, Awka

A pan-Igbo socio-cultural group, the League of Igbo Youth Lawyers, has called on the federal government to apply restraint in handling concerning Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and other similar groups.

President of the league, Barr Stanley Okafor, made the call during the group's town hall meeting in Awka.

He said that suppression would rather increase agitations for Biafra secession.

Reacting to the recent killing of the IPOB members at Emene, Enugu state on Sunday, August 23, 2020, Okafor said that people of the area have in the last four years faced series of persecution saying that the federal government should have applied proper integration of Igbo into the Nigerian project.

He said: "Biafra is a promise not a threat to Nigeria, hence the need for government to apply caution in resolving restiveness and security issues across the the country.

“We call on the government to review all actions in the last four years which has placed confrontation above dialogue as means of resolving national difficulties.

"The question of proper integration of the Igbo into the Nigerian project would continue to reverberate, and for those of us who continue to express optimism in the promise of a great Nigeria, nothing can be so assaulting as the constant show of overzealousness by security agencies in handling issues of civil agitation among our youths.

"It is our hope that if we deliberately create an atmosphere permissive of dialogue and fence mending we shall succeed in promoting the frontiers of goodwill and Nigeria will stand greater chance of sustaining our corporate existence against the current challenges bestowed upon us by our disperate actions".

According to Okafor, Igbo has greater nationality spirit than any other tribe in Nigeria.

"Igbo love Nigeria. Even Nnamdi Kanu cannot in anyway say he doesn’t want to belong to Nigeria. He is only working against the oneness of Nigeria because of absence of Justice and fairness on the part of leadership

“These young ones have their reservations on Nigerian project. You have to put new basket of love and togetherness in this country to make this country work. You have to prove these youths wrong by doing things right way,” he added.

He called on Igbo leaders at home and abroad as well as Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to intensify their efforts at investigating the unwanted killings.

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