The apex Igbo socio-political group, Ohaneze Ndigbo, on Sunday demanded an emergency national security conference to address the worsening insecurity and wanton killings in different parts of the country.
The President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo, said this in the group’s reaction to the killing by suspected Fulani Herdsmen of Mrs. Funke Olukunri; daughter of Afenifere leader, Pa Reuben Fasoranti by suspected Fulani herdsmen on the Ondo-Ore highway on Friday.
Nwodo, who on behalf of the Igbo nation condoled with Fasoranti and the entire Yoruba on the incident, condemned the continuous rampaging, plunder, rape, kidnapping and murder of innocent Nigerians by armed Fulani herdsmen, noting that the trend had got to a most worrisome crescendo.
He described as regrettable the inability of the country’s security agencies to disarm and prosecute the criminals, alleging that their attitude lent credibility to a growing story of collusion.
Nwodo in a statement by Ohanaeze on Sunday noted that recently, the British High Commission in an advisory to British citizens in Nigeria declared twenty-four states in the country unsafe.
He further regretted that in the midst of the killings, the parent organisation of the suspected criminals had the effrontery to give an ultimatum to President Muhammadu Buhari, to rescind his unpopular suspension, instead of cancellation of the RUGA development policy.
According to the statement, “Such inciting, provocative and treasonable outbursts has only been greeted by an advice that they (the suspected criminal parent body) should respect the Presidency and an unrelenting resolve to force Nigerians to accommodate such murderers in their homes under a policy that violates our constitution and all laws and court judgments relating to land Use Administration.
“Ohanaeze Ndigbo warns that this latest murder is capable of throwing our country into the uncontrollable break down of law and order. The hasty conclusion by the Federal Government that she (Mrs. Funke Olukunri) was killed by armed robbers and not the suspected herdsmen who are known to have laid siege on all parts of the country perpetrating acts of banditry and killings further exacerbates the already tense situation.
“We call on eminent leaders of this nation in spite of their political persuasion to come together in an urgent National Security Conference to discuss measures that will arrest the extant drift to lawlessness.”
