By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

An international Igbo organisation, Igbos for Progressive Nigeria (IPAN), on Friday urged Igbo youths not to be persuaded by inciting statements from certain individuals within and outside the country calling on them to take up arms and cause mayhem against other citizens.

It called on parents, traditional and community leaders to warn their children, subjects, and wards to desist from acts capable of creating unnecessary tension and destroying lives and property regardless of the owners.

In a statement signed by the organisation’s President, Mr. Lawrence Onuzulike, and Media Chief, Mr. Okeke Oliver, titled ‘A Call to Trade with Caution’, the group regretted the attribution of the #EndSARS protest to Igbo agenda, insisting it was a national action.

The statement read in part: “Those instigating violence are not speaking for Ndigbo, especially, as they are giving the impression that there was the hand of Esau in the protest in the first place.

“Whatever be the case, we stand as representatives of the Igbos in our own right, to address and discourage our teaming youths not to adhere to such a wicked directive.

“Though not the best time to point fingers, but it is now becoming clearer the true identity of the true enemies of the Igbos.

“Anyone who claims he/she is interested in the wellbeing of the Igbos, should start by encouraging our brothers and sisters both home and abroad to return home and lend a helping hand in the development of the region.

“Otherwise, any inciting statements or actions aimed against the lives of other people and destroying infrastructures that are in the first place, grossly inadequate in the region or any region for that matter can only mean that the perpetrators are the real enemies we seek.

“Igbos are some of the most traveled citizens in Nigeria, with large percentage of their investments domesticated in other regions of Nigeria other than in Igbo land.

“Hence, anyone who thinks he loves the Igbos should know that the best advice to give even in the height of any provocation, is certainly not to ask for the destruction of lives and property.”

The group maintained that it is a pro-Nigeria group of Igbo patriots working for the unity and progress of Nigeria; adept disciples of One Nigeria as a political philosophy.