OPINION: Nigerian Lives Matter!!
Posted by FN Editor | 3 years ago | 2,564 times
Obi Aguocha
By Obi Aguocha
No lives matter less than the other in a civil society, irrespective of religion, ethnicity and gender. The execution of any form of injustice must be roundedly condemned by all and sundry, irrespective of who is perpetuating it.
In the light of the recent and overwhelming evidence of extrajudicial killings been meted out by Nigeria security agents against unarmed Igbo youths in Oyigbo, Rivers State and Nsukka, Enugu State, the repeated and continued culture of loud silence of the nation and our leaders at state, national levels and the Igbo socio-cultural organisations, is embarrassingly suspect.
The State exists for the simple notion of ensuring the protection of life and property. So when the state is neither able to protect, nor bring justice by prosecuting the people who are summarily executing our people, an already volatile situation will be further aggravated and inflamed. There is ingrained suspicion about the motives of the Nigerian government towards the Igbo people and government is doing nothing to ameliorate that situation.
That the fear of extermination being instilled in our population by these rogue agents of state, opens the door to the call to arms. There are properly documented and evidentiary video recordings of these atrocities. The synergy between the house-to-house search and kill method used in Oyigbo by the agents of state and the public instruction by the governor of Rivers State, H.E Nyesom Wike, for specific igbo members of the Oyigbo community to be identified and pointed out to security agents must not go unnoticed.
Therefore, the call for acquisition of arms and ammunition for self-defense is gaining support as the government is rightfully perceived to be advancing a systematic policy of inequality, displacement, exclusion and structural tribalism against the Igbo people.
I call on the Nigerian government to urgently condemn these extrajudicial killings unequivocally, setup up a judicial panel of enquiry to investigate and bring to justice all those responsible for these heinous acts against the unarmed Igbo people and to ensure that compensation is paid to all the victims family.
Finally, I call on all the parties involved, including our brothers in IPOB to urgently commence de-escalation and immediately sheath their swords and be more circumspect in their utterances and cease to further inflame an already incendiary situation.
Obi Aguocha writes from Umuahia, Abia State and holds the traditional title of Udo Ji Agu-Ohuhu
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