Ohanaeze Youths Call for Self Defence against Herdsmen

Police arrest one suspect, as lawmaker tasks FG on protection of kinsmen

Emmanuel Ugwu in Umuahia and Christopher Isiguzo in Enugu
The Ohanaeze Youth council (OYC) on Friday called on Nigerians in communities being targeted by the marauding herdsmen to adopt the strategy of self-defence, saying that it has become “clear now that Mr. President has no control of events in the country.”

OYC, which is the youth wing of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, made the call following the latest attack in Ndiagu Attakwu-Akagbeugwu community of Enugu State, where a Catholic seminarian, Lazarus Nwafor and injured four others, including a pregnant woman.

In a related development, Enugu State Police Command has arrested one of the suspected herdsmen that attacked and killed the Catholic Seminarian.

In a statement signed by the state chairmen of OYC, Mazi Alex Okemiri, the group said that it could not understand the reason why the herdsmen have been allowed to have a free day, killing people and destroying properties in the Southern and Middle Belt areas of Nigeria.

“We call on Ndigbo, Southerners, Middle Beltans and moderate Arewa people to defend themselves in the face of this continuous killings and inability of the federal government to protect them. Self-protection and preservation is the first law of nature,” the OYC said.

The youths lamented that the “inability of President Muhammadu Buhari to rein in his Fulani kinsmen from killing and maiming innocent Nigerians is now obvious” hence the herdsmen have been emboldened “to rampage all parts of the country despite the assurances by Mr. President that it would stop”.

It stated that since “it’s clear now that Mr. President has no control of events in the country or is in cahoots with the rampaging herdsmen” it would be foolhardy for those at the receiving end of the herdsmen onslaught not to start checkmating the marauders.

The OYC said that the time had come for Enugu State Government to take appropriate measures to protect its citizens, adding that the government should “set up a well-armed Vigilante groups in all autonomous communities in the state “to engage these wicked and bloodthirsty Fulani herdsmen who are beast in human clothe and highly uncivilised.”

On the allegation that the OYC leader, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro was recruiting 2,000 youths for President Buhari on October 1 to rally against Biafra, the OYC said that there was no truth whatsoever in it.
“The pro-Biafran groups should sort themselves out and stop linking Ohanaeze Youth leadership in their crisis.

We believe in a united Nigeria anchored on justice and equity and we have made this clear at all times,” the OYC said. Police arrest one suspect, as lawmaker tasks FG Enugu State Police Command has arrested one of the suspected herdsmen involved in the killing in Ndiagu Attakwu-Akagbeugwu.

The suspect simply identified as 20-year old Umaru Isah from Gusau, Zamfara State according to a release by the Police Public Relations Officer, Ebere Amaraizu was arrested through intelligence information gathered.
This came as the member representing Nkanu West/Nkanu East Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon Chukwuemeka Ujam and a native of the community appealed to the federal government and the security agencies to protect members of his constituency from further attacks by Fulani herdsmen.

Ujam who made the appeal when he visited Attakwu community in Akagbeugwu, Nkanu West Local Government Area in company with the member representing Enugu East/Isiuzo Federal Constituency, Kingsley Ebenyi to pay his condolences noted that the killing of Catholic seminarian and wounding of four others was painful and unprovoked.

Meanwhile, some of those who survived the attack are on life support at Mother of Christ Hospital and Enugu State University Teaching Hospital, Parklane, Enugu.
One of the survivors, Ifeanyi Agbo who received machete cuts on his head and other parts of his body lost his sense of hearing in the process, while his younger sister is now battling for her life after a surgical operation was carried on her.

Amaraizu in his statement said the arrested suspect who claimed that he is 20 years old revealed that he came in from Gusau, Zamfara State to Enugu recently for the purposes of rearing cattle but has none to rear till now.

Similarly, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), has blamed Igbo leaders for “this unchallenged confrontations, unwarranted and cowardice killings of our people by Fulani herdsmen in our own land.”

In a statement issued by its leader, Uchenna Madu, the movement expressed dismay over the stance of the governors of the zone on the herdsmen attack, insisting that “until Igbo leaders wake up from their slumbers of inferiority complex and understand the efficiency, efficacy and potencies of Igbo-based grassroot organisations including the Biafra agitating groups.”