TheCable

Ohanaeze Ndigbo, apex Igbo socio-cultural group, has refuted the allegation that the involvement of Igbo youth in the #EndSARS protests is a plot to destroy the Yoruba economy.

The group was reacting to the allegations made by Apapo O’Odua Koya (AOKOYA), a pan Yoruba group, that there are plots to destroy critical economic assets in Yorubaland by “a combination of forces alien to the south-west people”.

“What is going on is not attacks carried out by #EndSARS protesters, but deliberate mayhem designed to turn Yorubaland into ruins,” AOKOYA had said in a statement.

“This is the handwriting of anti-Yoruba forces coordinated from Abuja and by some non-Yoruba groups in Lagos who have a myopic judgement that the destruction of Yorubaland will reduce our territories to their own primitive levels.”

But John Nwodo, president of Ohanaeze, described the allegations as “disheartening”, noting that it is “obviously being engineered and targeted at the age-long good relationship between the Igbo and the Yoruba”.

In a statement, Nwodo noted that most of the businesses scattered all over the country, particularly in Lagos, knocks out the thinking of the Igbo setting out to destroy another person’s economy.

He explained that the reasons for Ndigbo youths’ involvement in the #EndSARS protests are not different from reasons of other youth in Nigeria, “which borders on aggravated neglect of Nigerian youths due to poor governance rooted in dubious political structure”.

“Ohanaeze strongly believes that the press statement is craftily drafted showing a skillful use of underhand tactics to achieve a set goal which in this case is to set Yoruba against Ndigbo,” it said.

“We are ready to vehemently resist this in our time knowing the historical affinity of these two great ethnic groups dating back to the days of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe through to the famous handshake across the Niger propagated by our iconic leader Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu.

“This spontaneous relationship built by our forefathers over the years has been strengthened in the last three years by the political emancipation movement, being propelled by the Southern And Middle Belt leadership Forum (SMBLF), made up of four ethnopolitical bodies of Ndigbo, in the South East, Afenifere in the South West, PANDEF in the South South and the Middle Belt Forum in the North Central Nigeria.

“Ohanaeze feels based on intelligence available to it that the motive of this disturbing statement is not only to overtake the mileage covered by this group in setting their people free from the hegemonic bondage but to ensure its destruction.

“Ndigbo are focused and unequivocal about what they want in a contemporary Nigeria as already articulated in the terms of engagement of this group which is to restructure Nigeria for a true federal system where justice and equity will reign.

“We, therefore, wish to refute any position being ascribed to Ndigbo, even if such position is being adduced by an Igbo that is not within the realm of the struggle to free Nigeria as encapsulated in the terms of agreement of this ethnic nationalities.”

It asked the Yorubas to disregard the position being pushed by AOKOYA, because it’s not based on facts and the reality on ground.

It also condemned the “vituperative and inciting outrage” of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) on the #EndSARS activities in Lagos, adding that it is not representative of what the group stands for.