By Augustine Aminu
The Igbonine in Diaspora, Monday, called for the elimination of all obnoxious policies against the Igbo race.
According to the group, the Igbo race ‘has become the sacrificial lamb’ of Nigeria.
The group, which was reacting to the ongoing demolition of some property of Ndigbo in Lagos by the state government, said it was unfortunate that property which Ndigbo legitimately acquired and built over the years were being demolished without justification and compensation.
Amb Prof Marcel Ezenwoye, the representative of the group, said Ndigbo ‘are peace-loving, hard-working and champions of Nigeria’s unity’, and wondered why ‘they have been subjected to all kinds of ordeals in the aftermath of the Jan 15, 1966 military coup which was wrongly tagged the Igbo coup’ despite having a national outlook.
Quoting him, “Ndigbo are part and parcel of development of Nigeria. We see the entirely of Nigeria as a united front. Yet, powers that be are trying to annihilate us. We are being used as scapegoats all the time. How many Igbo were unjustly killed during the infamous Biafran War? In its aftermath, the Federal Government introduced the Abandoned Property Policy, Indigenisation Policy, Twenty Pounds Policy, and till date, orchestrated a political system that makes it impossible for an Igbo person to become the nation’s president. Upon all these, Ndigbo have maintained their peace and resilience.”
Prof Ezenwoye called on President Bola Tinubu to use his good offices to right the wrongs being meted to Ndigbo, ‘or pay off their investments, especially in Lagos and other parts of the country where Ndigbo are no longer wanted so that they could return home to start life anew rather than subjecting them to hazards of untimely death and agonies of acts they never committed’.
In his words, “We are asking President Tinubu to legitimately acquire all Igbo property in Lagos, etc, and settle the owners instead of watching their pains clandestinely. This implies taking over the property and paying their values to the owners, so they can return home to invest again. We have not made any mistake by being egalitarian in nature. We don’t want the case of Abandoned Property any longer. Most of Igbo investments are presently being destroyed in Lagos in a manner that is suspicious and a mark of hatred.