Igbo youths have condemned the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Police for arresting the Eze Igbo of Ajao Estate in Lagos, Eze Fredrick Nwajagu, under the auspices of the Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL).
WITHIN NIGERIA reports that Nwajagu was apprehended by security operatives on Saturday morning for threatening to invite members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to protect Igbo traders in Lagos State from hoodlum attacks.
COSEYL demanded the release of the Igbo leader in a statement signed by its President General, Goodluck Ibem.
While describing Nwajagu’s arrest as an insult and affront to the entire Igbo nation, the group claimed that people such as MC Oluomo and his thugs who threatened Igbo are free to roam.
The youth group claimed that Nwajagu’s alleged threat arose out of necessity as a result of security agencies’ docility in the face of incessant senseless attacks on Igbo interests in Lagos.
COSEYL said:
The statement by the Igbo leader was made because of the silence of the security agencies towards the attack on the Igbos in Lagos. The DSS and the police left the real cause of the problem to chase shadows.
This same police and DSS that arrested Eze Fredrick Nwajagu and other innocent Igbos, what did they do when thugs were killing and attacking Igbos and their properties in Lagos during and after the general elections? The answer is nothing.
Now the person who intends to make a move to protect himself and you go and arrest him, meaning that you want him to stand without doing anything and be killed?
That is absolute balderdash. Only a tree will hear that you will cut him down tomorrow and he will still stand in the same place without making a move.
It is disgraceful that the Lagos police Spokesman, SP Benjamin Hundeyin said that he will resist any arrangement by the Igbos to protect themselves in Lagos but the same police will do nothing to protect the Igbos when thugs are killing and attacking Igbos and their businesses in Lagos.
When MC Oluomo threatened to attack Igbos who will not vote for particular candidates during the elections in Lagos, the police and the DSS did not arrest him nor stop the attacks. But just a mere statement by an Igbo leader to protect Igbo lives and properties in Lagos, the DSS and the police suddenly know how to arrest because the person involved is an Igbo man.
We warn the DSS and the police in Lagos State to stop attacking and maltreating the Igbo because Nigeria belongs to all of us. No tribe is higher than the other in this country. Enough is enough!
When the attacks on the igbos lasted in Lagos, the DSS and the police kept silence, which is a tacit approval to the attacks against Igbos and their properties in Lagos.
We demand immediate release of the following revered Igbo Leaders: Eze Fredrick Nwajagu, the leader of the Igbo community in the Ibashe riverine area of Lagos State; Eze Chinedu Mozie who was illegally detained by the police in Lagos after he challenged thugs for not allowing Igbos in the community to vote in the just -concluded gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections.
Others are Chisom Kalu, Charity Hannah, Mike Nwokehia, Elizabeth Adenike, Joseph Agada, Sunday Awnunu, Omaji Oyegwra and Okeke Chinyere and other Igbos illegally detained by the police because they wanted to cast their votes.