Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex social-cultural body of the Igbos in South-East Nigeria has lambasted Abubakar Malami, the Attorney General of the Federation for blaming the leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu for all the killings and destructions that attended the #Endsars youth protest last year as well as past and present killings going on in the South East.
Ohanaeze described his style as crude, anachronistic, unethical, unprofessional and unbefitting of his Office.
Recall that Malami had addressed a press conference last Friday in Abuja, where he alleged that IPOB, under the leadership of Kanu “has been working against the Nigerian nation based on his actions and speech” and that he instigated others to attack public properties, security agents, civilians and any other perceived enemy using Radio Biafra as a major means of communication”.
But Chief Alex Chidozie Ogbonnia, the national publicity secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo did not find this funny. He expressed disappointment that Malami could descend to the level of total ignorance and shopping for offences just to nail Kanu.
“One will think that a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, and the Attorney General of the Federation the Chief Law Officer of the Federation, should be above board”, Chief Alex Chidozie Ogbonnia, the National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo said.
“It is therefore advised that Malami should not be so cheap for the uninitiated to discover his shenanigans. In other words, the above remarks by the AGF are very inelegant, imprudent, malicious, treacherous and fallacious.
“Malami should know that the Internet World has left him behind. All his game plans are crude and anachronistic. Malami sinister motives of heaping all criminalities in Nigeria on IPOB or the Igbo including the crimes where arrests have been made and the known culprits already arraigned is most unethical, unprofessional and unbefitting of his Office.
“Some other crimes that Malami ascribes to IPOB are still under investigation and arrests so far made are not linked to IPOB. The Malami perversions are very strange to Law and indeed a new dimension in the Nigerian justice delivery system.
“Malami card is to paint the South East of Nigeria as a terrorist zone, to prepare a ground for the use of the newly acquired American Super Tucano Fighter Jets in the zone.
“Malami should be reminded that the very condition for the sale and release of the jets to Nigeria by the USA is that they will be used strictly to fight the Boko Haram terrorists in the North East and incessant Banditry in the North West.
“Furthermore, Malami is playing god by believing that 2023 is the end of the world and is plotting hard against the Igbo interest.
“Unfortunately, Malami has crossed the red line.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo calls on the Nigeria Barr Association, NBA, to re-examine Mr Abubakar Malami in a bid to establish his suitability and competence for the elevated Office he occupies.
“Ohanaeze Ndigbo still believes that all these grandstanding and hyperboles by the federal government about the Igbo or IPOB are machinations in self-denial.
“The solution to the crises in Nigeria lies in justice and dialogue. If the federal government can encourage dialogue with the notorious Bandits, Boko Haram and Fulani Herdsmen, it is therefore expected that what is good for the goose is mutatis mutandis, good for the gander”, Ohanaeze said.
Speaking further, the Igbo apex body said: “That the IPOB vandalized and looted the Palace of the Oba of Lagos and burnt over one hundred and fifty (150) buses at the Lagos Bus Terminal were mere ethnic cards simply intended to play up the Yoruba against the Igbo.
“It is important for Malami to know that the bond between the Yoruba and the Igbo is strong, inseparable and beyond his narrow machinations.
“Malami should know that the Yoruba do not spill the Igbo blood and vice versa. The likes of Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, who chose the supreme prize instead of betraying an Igbo in the person of General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi Ironsi, have replicated across boards in millions.
“Perhaps, Malami does not know the historic role played by the current Oba of Lagos, as a Police Officer, for the return from exile of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the Ikemba Nnewi in 1982. Malami should know that the Igbo- Yoruba relation has given rise to several high profile intermarriages with bubbling grown-up children and grandchildren. More of the above sources of unity and inter-ethnic solidarity was accentuated when the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Ambassador Professor George Obiozor paid a courtesy visit to the Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in his Lagos Office”.
Making some clarifications, Ohanaeze noted that “The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB is mostly populated by the Igbo. The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide and the Leader of IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu are united against the orchestrated marginalization of the Igbo in one Nigeria.
“The point of divergence between the Ohanaeze Ndigbo and the IPOB is that while the former believes that the Igbo ingenuity will find full expression in a restructured Nigeria, the latter appears to be tired of the age-long marginalization of the Igbo in a country they have sacrificed so much to build.
“In other words, the IPOB are our children and we owe them undiluted love, duty and responsibility”.
