The transfer of Boko Haram prisoners to Anambra State has remained an issue among the Igbo in the last couple of days. Former Ohanaeze Ndigbo President General, Dr. Dozie Ikedife, spoke with Special Correspondent, OKEY MADUFORO, on the implications of the development on the South East and its people.
The last administration has been accused of signing the transfer of Boko Haram prisoners to Anambra State. What are your views on the development?
I am yet to confirm that story, but it is in the national newspapers. At this point, there is no need apportioning blames on anybody. I know that in law, there is what is called prisoners’ transfer, and it is always done. But what is now the issue is why must it be Anambra State? Why not Benue, Plateau or Nasarawa? Why must Anambra be chosen as a place to keep this type of prisoners? I am being tempted to believe that it may be because Anambra is neither a PDP state nor an APC state. Is it because Anambra is of APGA (All Progressives Grand Alliance)? Come to think of it; we do not have a maximum security prison where such prisoners are kept. When you look at Anambra, you will discover that, relatively, it is peaceful. But with this transfer, people are not comfortable anymore.
What security measures do we have in averting any possible attack by the Boko Haram? That is my worry. The presence of the Boko Haram prisoners in Anambra is a potential threat to Igboland in general. I feel Anambra was deliberately chosen for that, so that when the cataclysm starts, it will spill over to the rest of the South East. If the last administration endorsed the transfer, then it is unfortunate that the man we called our brother and even gave him an Igbo name could do this to us.
The South East governors have expressed their displeasure over it. Do you think it is enough?
The position of our governors is commendable and I salute their courage. But after those resolutions, what next? This should be backed with sustained action on the matter, so that these prisoners would be relocated to another state in the North East or North Central. We do not have the necessary facilities to harbour this type of prisoners in Anambra or in any part of Igbo land. Our governors should arrange a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari and make bold their position on the issue. Our representatives in the National Assembly should also come up with a way forward and make similar resolutions on the matter and follow it up through the appropriate channels, so that we can achieve results at the end.
It is not only the issue of transfer of prisoners. Our governors should also make case for the abandoned and dilapidated federal government infrastructure in the South East. These are issues that must be addressed by the federal government and not to come and dump international criminals in Igboland.
It is also alleged that the Boko Haram inmates are being pampered and treated like princes.
That indeed boils down to what we have been saying. Going by what you said, you can imagine how people who are known internationally for killing people in their thousands are given special treatment, all in the name of trying to rehabilitate them. I learnt that they are those that willingly surrendered themselves and one wonders how this can be true. This can also be a ploy by the Boko Haram people to get at Nigerians ultimately. If they have departed from their old deadly ways, why keep them in prison custody? They should have been told to go home and sin no more. We also fail to understand that before you become a member of such an organisation, you pass through several stages of tutelage and a great deal of indoctrinations that would make you see a non-Muslim as an infidel that must be killed. Against this background, I still have my fears about how such people can just change so easily.
If these people are treated specially in Ekwulobia prison, it also sends danger signal about the fate of other inmates. How about the original inmates who have never been treated the same way? So what this means is that even in the prison, the same age-long segregation still pervades across the ethnic groups in the country.
I urge the federal government to evacuate these people from Ekwulobia Prisons before the rest of the inmates begin to protest against this form of segregation in the prison. Federal government should also be reminded that the inmates also have relatives that were killed in the North by Boko Haram.
The original inmates can decide to carry out reprisals on the group and that would surely open a new episode in the matter to the detriment of the South East.
Ohanaeze as a body appears not to be doing anything about it.
I do not agree with you. I am aware that the body had made a statement on that. Though I am no longer the president-general (of Ohanaeze), I have it on good authority that something has been done and is being done about this development. I also want to use this opportunity to urge our people and the current leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo to work closely with our South East governors and other bodies to ensure that these people are returned to where they came from.
The argument that sending them to the South East and South South makes them safe is improper.