By Tunde Opalana & Ukpono Ukpong
The Presidency has warned against any knee-jerk reactions, the creation of panic, disruption of lives and livelihoods, or even retaliatory violence following the viral videos of the alleged killings of non-indigenes by the Eastern Security Network (ESN) and its mother terrorist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
This was contained in a statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.
The presidency, however, urged all the citizens to avoid hasty steps or conclusions that could exacerbate the situation, and on the contrary keep to a line of conduct that will help the law to take its proper course.
The statement further disclosed that expert agencies are currently verifying the factuality and veracity of the claims that accompany the horrid pictures being circulated.
The Presidency also cautioned the public against the indiscriminate sharing of posts on social media so as to deny vested interests who seek to divide us and create disturbance the chance to do so.
In the issuance of his very strong condemnation of these “wild, barbarous and wanton killings of innocent people” in the South-East as well as the other parts of the country, which he described as “deeply distressing,” President Muhammadu Buhari warned the perpetrators of these acts to expect tough response from the security forces.
Meanwhile, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has been exonerated from nefarious and mindless killings in the southeastern state of Anambra.
Lead Counsel to the pan- Igbo ethnic nationality, Sir Ifeanyi Ejiofor, blamed the spate of violence and killings in the state on some faceless criminal elements who are desirous of desecrating Anambra State and Igboland in general, DailyTimes gathered.
In a statement on Wednesday, May 25, in which he was reacting to a statement by the Coalition of Northern Groups (CMG) in response to the incessant killings of Northerners in South East, the legal practitioner said “the recent spree of mindless and barbaric killings of innocent people in the South-East is alarming, totally condemnable and unacceptable.”
Ejiofor said: “As the Lead Counsel for the IPOB and on behalf of my client, I wish to reiterate that the IPOB leadership have never supported the nefarious activities of these enemies of our people, neither have they, in any of their publication approved such inhuman and barbaric activities of these criminals.
“The IPOB remains a lawful and peaceful movement.
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“I therefore, strongly condemn in unmistaken terms, these dastardly acts in their entirety, and consequently, call on Security Agencies, and every Anambrabrian, to unite towards defending our land from these monsters desecrating it.
“These criminal elements, regardless of their ethnic affiliations, must be crushed. We must free our land from them.
The hour is here! My heart indeed bleeds!”
The IPOB counsel noted that the victims of these mindless bloody assaults are not limited to a particular ethnic group, capable of warranting the present threats being dished out to the South-East.
He further stressed the trajectory of the perpetrators of these heinous crimes, which suggests that the culprits are not limited to people of a particular region (South-East), adding that other tribes like the Fulani herdsmen are equally on rampage in the southeast region.
He said: “It is critical at this juncture, that security Agents are allowed to carry out a thorough investigation into these barbaric acts. Hence, people should refrain from making pronouncements capable of heating up the already volatile polity that could ultimately promote the vice, which the ordinary intent of the pronouncement is set out to cure.
“We therefore, call on every well-meaning person to join hands in helping to fight and flush out insurgency in the South-East.
“Our deepest condolences go out to the families of all those who have lost their loved ones as a result of these mayhem in the South-East.
“Please be assured that no stone will be left unturned, towards ensuring that the perpetrators of these heinous crimes are brought to book.”
Recall that Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, spokesperson of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CMG) on May 24 responded to what was termed ‘Incessant Killings of Northerners in South East’.
The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) highlighted events unfolding in South-East Nigeria, noting especially, “the unrelenting attacks and killings of northerners passing through or residing among Igbo communities as minorities.”
The CNG claimed that hate campaigns and propaganda being conducted by created by certain interest groups in the South-East in the form of regional and ethnic agitators have emboldened the IPOB/ESN to carry out these unprovoked evictions, attacks, killings, destructions of properties and other forms of violations against northerners in various parts of the South East.
Of particular mention by the CNG was the reports of the brutal murder of a mother and her four children for the only sin of being northerners.
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