Igbo women have told the Chief of Defense Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa, to go after the killer herdsmen displacing communities in South East if he is genuinely committed to the restoration of peace to the zone, declaring that the rampaging herders and not members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, are the problem of South East.

The women who spoke under the aegis of the Igbo Women Assembly (IWA) were responding to a recent caution by the CDS to the people of the South East against promoting the activities of IPOB and its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN), particularly through social media.

The CDS, who spoke during a community engagement in Omor, Anambra State, said that the spread of unverified information ?not only endangers the region but also poses a threat to national unity and peace.?

The CDS who Group Captain Ibrahim Bukar represented, said that ?IPOB?s actions are detrimental not just to the South East, but to Nigeria as a whole? and should not be supported in any form.

But IWA, in a swift response, argued that contrary to claims by the federal government, ?IPOB is not a terrorists group but a peaceful movement protesting the marginalisation and continued exclusion of the South East from the scheme of things in Nigeria.?

IWA, in a strong ? worded statement by its National President, Lolo Nneka Chimezie, challenged the CDS to advise the federal government to listen to the agitations o? IPOB and engage the group in a dialogue with a view to addressing its genuine concerns, instead of resorting to propaganda to blackmail its members.

The statement read: ?We want to remind Gen. Musa that IPOB members are not terrorists but our children who are protesting the ill-treatment and marginalization of the South East from the scheme of things in Nigeria. Since the civil war, the Southeast has been grossly marginalized by the Nigerian State.

?From 1966, after the assassination of Gen. Aguiyironsi till date, no Igbo man has been President of Nigeria. Ndigbo has grossly been marginalized in political appointments by successive administrations in the country.

?They have been denied their rightful promotion, especially those in the security agencies. And that?s part of the reasons Igbo youths are losing interest in military recruitment. They have refused to join the military and even the police because they hardly get promoted, unlike their colleagues from other tribes. In other federal establishments, the story is the same. The quota of the South East is always shortchanged.

?So, these are the things these children are protesting. When they graduate from school, like their fellow youths from other tribes, they don?t get equal opportunities for employment. That?s what they are protesting because they believe that they are not included in Nigeria?s structure. They feel unjustly excluded.

?They want inclusion and full integration into the Nigeria system. We can no longer foolishly shy away from the plights of our children.?

The women queried the rationale behind the constant release of captured terrorists who claim to have repented while peaceful agitators like IPOB members are held in perpetual detention.

?Why is the federal government killing IPOB members but granting amnesty to bandits and mass murderers who have not stopped killing innocent citizens, including security agents? Why is the government killing our youths on peaceful protests but allowing armed herdsmen on a killing spree to keep roaming our communities with guns?

?Fulani herdsmen do not need AK-47s in the South East because there has never been any incident of cattle rustling in the region. For them to carry AK-47s to shoot people shows they have an evil agenda because they don?t shoot and run but shoot and stay.

?What IPOB is demanding is legitimate. It?s their right. Our findings indicated that IPOB is not the cause of the mayhem in the South East. Those causing mayhem in the zone are criminal elements and killer herdsmen. If the CDS truly loves the restoration of peace in the Southeast, let him advise the federal government to listen to IPOB engage the youths in sincere dialogue and address their grievances. We are tired of all these endless blame games.

?Gen. Musa should understand that the problem of the South East is not IPOB: our problem is the rampaging Fulani herdsmen busy displacing communities across the zone. If Gen. Musa wants to maintain peace and order in the South East, he should move his men to the bush to combat the killer herdsmen killing our farmers and raping our women and girls.?

Igbo women who insisted that IPOB is a peaceful movement accused the federal government of mismanaging the group?s agitations.

?IPOB made it known that it is a peaceful organization right from the beginning. However, security agencies continued to kill the members even during peaceful protests. They have been fighting for freedom without firing a bullet. And from our investigations, they have maintained that peaceful disposition. We see their protests on social media, and we have never seen them with arms. They have remained a peaceful organization.

?Rather than engage them in a productive dialogue, the federal government chose to clamp down on them even when they are bearing no arms. When they are arrested, they are shot and killed and some dumped in prison to rot. They are denied the opportunity of fair trial in a court of competent jurisdiction.?

IWA traced the genesis of the tension in the South East to the military?s deployment to the zone during a special military operation codenamed Python Dance.

?May we remind Gen. Musa that prior to the drafting and deployment of the military to the South East by President Muhammadu Buhari, we had absolute peace in Igbo land. South East was the most peaceful region In Nigeria before then. Although there were criminals everywhere, the level of criminality in the South East was lower compared to other zones until the federal government decided to militarise the South East, beginning with the infamous Operation Python Dance.

?When the federal government abducted IPOB leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from Kenya, the problem became worse. IPOB members, in protest, declared Monday sit-at-home protests but relaxed after appeals from the elders. However, some criminal elements cashed in on that to unleash mayhem on the people, apparently to demonize IPOB.

?During President Donald Trump?s inauguration, a lot of them were shot and killed in Port Harcourt for celebrating Trump. Many were also killed in Onitsha and Aba for merely praying and carrying out peaceful protests.

?IWA has severally monitored the sit-at-home and found that it was peaceful. But because some wicked political leaders, in their desperate bid to crush IPOB, connived with the Federal Government to deploy the military in our communities. Before the deployment of the military, there were no killings in the South East as witnessed after the deployment.

?The Chief of Defense Staff should know that IPOB is not the problem of the South East. Rather, the deployment of the military gave birth to the security challenges that engulfed the zone. The military should ask itself some probing questions.

?When a former militant leader came to boast that he was engaged to secure South East, has anybody asked him who engaged him and the terms of his engagement? Has there been any Investigation of the real Identities of those behind insecurity in the South East? Gen. Musa should also investigate if it were IPOB that turned security road blocks in the South East into ATM machines and extortion points. Who are those humiliating and harassing passengers at the security checkpoints across South East?

?Immediately IPOB noticed that the sit-at-home had been hijacked by criminals whose mission was to provide an excuse for military siege on the South East , it called off the protest but government has refused to withdraw the military. This confirms the fear that federal government has been looking for an opportunity to takeover the South East.?

Igbo women decried the continued migration of youths from the South East who are fleeing intimidation and humiliation by security operatives especially at roadblocks.

IWA also condemned reprisal attacks on innocent communities any time security agents come under attacks by criminals in South East.

?While the security operatives deployed to the South East were busy crushing our youths, criminals were busy spreading insecurity in the South East.

Our youths have deserted the zone in their droves out of fear and continued intimidation by security agents. Any time that criminals attack the security agents on checkpoints, the security agents will turn their guns on the nearby village against innocent and unarmed people they claim to have been deployed to protect.

?Why are security agents attacking our villages anytime they are attacked by criminals. A popular market in Orsu Imo State was burnt down by security agents in a reprisal after they were attacked by criminals. The villagers were also displaced. The question is: What have poor villagers doing their business in the market got to do with the attack against security personnel on the road? South East is not the only place where security men have come under attack by criminals but why is it that the responses have not been the same?

?There have been several attacks against security agencies in the North but how many Northern villages were sacked in the aftermath unlike here in the South East? Awo Idemiri, Eke Ututu market in Imo State were all attacked. These made our youths to migrate from South East in their droves.

?What the security agents are doing is to systematically chase our youths away so that we will not have those to defend us when the rumoured jihad eventually starts.?

IWA raised alarm over the influx of aliens in the South East and urged security agents to investigate their mission.

? There is an invasion of South East by strange faces doing all sorts of menial jobs and surveying our land. These strange faces are not IPOB members. In some villages some of these jobless wanderers outnumber the owners of the land What?s the Nigeria Government doing that it has not stopped these marauders who are moving about with guns and killing innocent citizens at will?

?The sacking of villages which was started by security agents under the guise of reprisal attacks have been sustained by the killer herdsmen. This made us believe that there?s an agenda to take over our land.?

Igbo women further demanded immediate dismantling of security roadblocks across South East which, they said have become extortion points causing delays in traffic. (Sunday Vanguard)

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