Leaders of the Igbo and Ijaw nations have vowed to bulwark their territories in the face of the terrorist attacks of the Boko Haram sect.
The ethnic nationalities made the declaration in separate verbalizations during the inauguration of the incipiently elected National Executive Council of the Ohanaeze Youth Wing in Enugu.
While the incipient Bellwether of the Ohanaeze Youth Wing, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, assured that Igbo youths would forfend Igboland against the incursion of the Boko Haram sect, the Acting President of the Ijaw National Congress, Charles Ambaiowei, an engineer, verbalized the Ijaws are capable of bulwarking themselves “if the time comes for everybody to bulwark themselves.”
Making his inaugural address, Isiguzoro raised the alarm over the gradual incursion of the Boko Haram sect and Fulani herdsmen into the South-East.
“We condemn the perpetual Boko Haram terrorist attacks as an ill wind that will blow no good. We shall do all in our potencies to forfend Igbo territory against the incursion of Boko Haram, since such incursion shall have dire consequences for national security.
“We as well condemn the terrorist activities of the soi-disant Fulani herdsmen who terrorise innocent farmers and women at will.
“Just two days ago, they assailed two women at Agbogugu, here in Enugu State in their farms, maiming them solemnly,” he verbalized.
He urged the Arewa Consultative Forum to call the perpetrators to authoritatively mandate “if those people are genuinely Fulani herdsmen.”
Stressing that the Ohanaeze Youth Wing would collaborate with the governors to combat abducting, armed larceny and other malefactor vices in Igboland, Isiguzoro urged President Goodluck Jonathan to avail fight insecurity in the South-East by “extending amnesty to south-eastern militants, who were gainsaid amnesty by President Umaru Yar’Adua predicated on their emanating from the South-East.”
He expounded that the Igbo militants, who fought in the creeks alongside “their Ijaw brothers” had relocated to the South-East with their armory and their boys after they were not carried along in the amnesty programme.
The Ohanaeze youth bellwether further urged Jonathan to provide more infrastructure in the South-East in order to assure the fortification of the Igbo youths in the 2015 presidential election, “when he decides to run”.
On his component, the bellwether of the Ijaw National Congress, Ambaiowei, verbalized that, like the Igbos, the Ijaws are yare to forfend their territory in the face of the belligerent campaign of the Boko Haram sect.
He verbally expressed Jonathan was the target of the Boko Haram campaign, which he verbally expressed, was aimed at making things arduous for the president.
“If the time comes for everybody to forfend themselves, then the Ijaws will be capable of forfending our territory. The Ijaw territory is minute: we are capable of bulwarking it – I am sure the Igbos will be capable of doing the same thing,” he verbally expressed.
Continuing, the Ijaw bellwether verbally expressed, “The truth must be told, the Boko Haram insurgency was formulated to make things arduous for our brother President Goodluck Jonathan.”
He joined Ohanaeze Ndigbo in calling for the “dismantling” of the current states structure.
“Regionalism is the answer,” Ambaiowei stressed.
Also, he pointed out that the emergence of Jonathan as President did not designate that all the quandaries of the Ijaws have been solved.
Chairman of the event, former Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika (rtd), in his remarks, urged Nigerian youths to fight insurgency and insecurity.
Ihejirika verbalized, “President Goodluck Jonathan is performing very well. There is so much we can do in this country but without security, we cannot do much.”