The apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has slammed the coalition of 75 Northern groups under the aegis of Northern Consensus Movement for placing N100 million bounty on the supreme leader of of the Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo accused the warring factions in the leadership of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders and Islamic terror organizations of being behind the killings and destruction of properties in the southeast region.
WITHIN NIGERIA had reported that the Northern groups on Thursday declared Kanu wanted for masterminding the recent spate of attacks on Northern communities in the South-East via what they called ‘hate speech’.
Dr. Awwal Abdullahi Aliyu, who spoke on behalf of the coalition, accused Kanu and the Eastern Security Network (IPOB’s militia wing) of killing Northerners and destroying their businesses in the southeastern part of Nigeria.
Reacting, Ohanaeze Ndigbo in a statement by its Secretary-General, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro on Friday said the Northern groups should place their N100 million bounty on Miyetti Allah and the slain Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau’s successor whom it alleged had foisted heavy havoc on the citizens.
The Igbo organization said, “we would not want to join issues with faceless groups that are not known in the north but in as much as that they are making some attempts to cause crisis in the country by ensuring that the groups not only placing a bounty on Nnamdi Kanu over alleged killings, they are out to escalate the tension in the country.
“For the purpose of record and from the last time, there had not been any killing, except the accidental killing of Ahmed Gulak in Owerri. There had not been killing recorded anywhere in the southeast about northern people except some nefarious activities of unknown gunmen and killer Fulani herdsmen who had been attacking police stations and government facilities and killing both Igbos and indigenes from other parts of the country.
“We want to tell the groups being sponsored by some northern presidential aspirants to place the bounty on the new leader of Boko Haram terrorist group, that had just emerged after the death of Shekau. Nnamdi Kanu has an address in London or in Germany where his headquarters of IPOB is. There is no need of searching for Kanu. He is not in Nigeria, he has an address in London as a British citizen. They should just use the N100 million bounty given to them by northern politicians, who are trying to destabilize the southeast to have easy root for the 2023 presidential ticket of major political parties in Nigeria, especially of the PDP.
“They should place the bounty on Shekau’s successor who has no address, who is living in the forest, the terrorist group that took arms against the government for the last six years. They should not cry more than the bereaved, we will take care of the southeast and ensure normalcy returns. As far as we are concerned, that bounty is inconsequential and political. It is not necessary, only a means to continue to heat up tension in the polity”.