Ohanaeze Ndigbo, yesterday, asked lovers of democracy to intervene in the primitive and primordial display of wickedness and hate against Ndigbo in Nigeria.

The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation regretted that while several Yoruba eminent people are lending noble hands for a better Nigeria, some miscreants and hoodlums are busy destroying the cordial relationship between Igbo and Yoruba by attacking their source of income and wellbeing.

Ohanaeze, reacting to the Akere Auto-Spare Parts Market fire, dominated by Igbo in Lagos, on Wednesday, where goods worth billions of naira were destroyed, and the controversy trailing the death of a 65-year-old security guard in the market before the inferno, insisted that the incident was the result of threats issued by hoodlums before the presidential election that a vote against the All Progressives Congress (APC) will incur their wrath.

A statement signed by National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Alex Ogbonnia, which condemned the “Lagos attacks on Igbo,” called on President Muhammadu Buhari; governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Bola Tinubu, security agencies and the International Community to intervene “at this point, because the ignored injustice somewhere will ultimately have reverberations elsewhere and everywhere.”

Ohanaeze added: “It is common knowledge that the February 25 presidential election was not based on ethnicity. What the oppressed and dispossessed masses expressed was a desire to create a new Nigeria through Peter Obi.

It goes without saying that it requires an exceptional audacious and capacious Nigerian to pull Nigeria out of the woods. Anyone who has watched Obi closely in the past 40 years will discern that he is specially sent from heaven to redeem Nigeria from its downward spiral. But the presidential candidate of the APC in the last election, Bola Tinubu, also enjoyed good Igbo supporters in Lagos. So, why all these?

“The Igbo persecutions are not likely to stop their entrepreneurship, cosmopolitanism and resilience. The Igbo are found everywhere to be hardworking. They strive to cooperate with and add vital infrastructural values to their host communities. This is the ideal worthy of emulation.”

“It must also be pointed out that before the general election, various ethnic cultural groups such as the Afenifere, Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), the Middle Belt, Arewa groups, etc., were in the forefront of the Obi-Datti movement, and thousands of Yoruba youths were deeply committed to the course.

The Guardian