By Okey Maduforo (Owerri)
and Titus Oise (Benin)
Two former Biafran soldiers, one of them now a professor, have joined Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, to appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene urgently in the recurring killings by Fulani herdsmen.
A People’s Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant in Edo State, Solomon Edebiri, also called on Abuja to stop the attacks.
Okorocha told a gathering of traditional rulers in Owerri to take control of security in their communities and ensure peaceful co-existence between indigenes and people from other parts of Nigeria living in their midst.
He appealed for calm over the killings in the South East, expressing optimism that Buhari would address the development.
He condemned the attack in Enugu and other parts of the country, sympathised with bereaved families, and appealed for peace, saying Nigeria cannot afford wanton killings.
“The killings in Enugu State are inhuman and those behind the killings should be made to face the law. As traditional rulers you are to take charge of security in your autonomous communities.
“You are now the chief security officers of your communities and you must ensure harmony between your people and others living with them. At this time in the country absolute peace is required,” Okorocha said.
Prepare against herdsmen, Edebiri warns
In Benin, Edebiri urged the federal government to take action immediately to curb the activities of Fulani herdsmen now on a killing spree.
He also asked the Edo State government to take security steps to forestall any attack by the herdsmen anywhere in the state.
“The Edo State government must not wait until it happens before it starts rushing to put security measures in place. We have had enough warnings from news of attacks in neighbouring states. The government must act now,” he stressed.
“The government should make serious arrangements for a joint task force of the police and the military to monitor known communities and city outskirts where the Fulani herdsmen take their cattle for grazing to make sure they don’t attack their hosts.”
Edebiri insisted that the masses have suffered enough hardship as a result of the insensitivity of leaders, and the time has come for the government at all levels across the country to protect lives and property.
Achuzia sees another pogrom
To Joe Achuzia, a former Biafran colonel, the mass killings by Fulani herdsmen in the South East has resurrected the ghost of the civil war.
He described the murders as another pogrom against the South East, and urged Ndigbo to defend themselves against a plot to “exterminate” a race.
His words: “The killings by Fulani people are reprehensible. Before, we knew them as nomads that take cattle from place to place. Now they have started killing people.
“This is reprehensible and I make bold to say that this is the similar way our people were killed in the North. What is happening now is a pogrom.
“Any mass killing of a people by another race is a pogrom and that is exactly what the Fulani herdsmen are doing.
“It is only a mad person that will go to sleep without securing his home. Our people should stand and protect themselves. We have the constitutional right to do so. This is called self defence.
“If this type of thing continues then we are doomed. How can a community watch their homes attacked and their kinsmen killed and keep quiet? They should protect themselves.
“This is no longer those days when we saw them as Fulani men herding cattle about and we saw them as harmless people.
“A fresh and new pogrom has started and it may spread to other parts of Igboland if we fail to defend ourselves at this point.
“While we wait for the government to come into the matter we should be seen to be doing something proactive and not to keep mourning and crying while death is close to our door step.”
Like war captives
Another former Biafran soldier and former Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Professor Boniface Egboka, lamented that the killings are an attempt to remind Ndigbo that they are war captives.
“That was how it all started and our brothers and sisters were killed in the North. Pregnant women had their unborn babies ripped off and children were killed like chicken,” he recalled.
“This time around it is happening in the South East and our senators and House of Representatives members are watching. This is yet another way of telling us that we are war captives and we must remain a conquered race.
“People may think that it is one of those things and sooner or later we shall come to terms with the realities of the undercurrent.
“I saw the pogrom and I saw the war. I saw people suffer. I saw hunger. I saw frustration. I saw orphans. I saw psychological distress. Those things are still happening now.”
MASSOB wants self defence
Leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Uchenna Madu, announced that “this is no longer the time for so much talking. Talking is cheap and anybody can say whatever he or she wants to say.
“All we need now is action. I mean real action. Does it mean that we do not have men in Igboland? Does it mean that our young men and women are cowards?
“Enough of this nonsense. This is a game plan by the Nigerian government. They first arrested Nnamdi Kanu and then sent their people to start the killings.
“People should not see us as cowards, we have all that it takes to get back at them and the time is now.”
