Ohanaeze demands prosecution of South-east violence perpetrators

The pan-Igbo sociopolitical group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, yesterday called on the federal government to immediately commence an inquest into the rising violence in the South-east, with a view to arresting and prosecuting those behind the killings and attack on valuable assets.

The group, in a statement by its President-General, Prof. George Obiozor, and it's Secretary-General, Mr Okey Emuchay, Ohanaeze Ndigbo said the attacks did not bear the usual marks of local perpetrators.

It decried the violent attacks on some institutions in the South-east, including the one on the correctional centre, police headquarters and the country home of the Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma.

The group recalled the attack on the Federal High Court Abakaliki, Ebonyi, saying that just on Monday, there was yet an attack on the Fulani community at Igbariam in Anambra State, leading to the murder of innocent civilians.

It added: “These attacks were clinically conducted by the perpetrators and to this extent do not bear the usual and known signature of local operators.

“Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide condemns in strong terms the killings that took place at Igbariam, Anambra State. Such dastardly acts are not in Igbo character. Ohanaeze urges the security agencies to trace the perpetrators of this heinous crime and bring them to book.”

Ohanaeze stated that it has reviewed the incidence of criminalities in the region in the recent past and concluded that going by the sophistication and capacity of the likely perpetrators, some powerful elements or groups could be deliberately orchestrating violence to justify the pre-planned and predetermined invasion of the South-east.

The organisation, therefore, requested the federal government to investigate the nature and the sophistication of the crimes that were taking place in the South-east in the interest of all.

“Ohanaeze requests the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to thoroughly investigate this new wave of criminalities and violence in South-east of Nigeria,” it said.