The apex socio-political body of the Igbo, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has said it will consult widely before taking any decision on the 2019 elections.
The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Mr. Chuks Ibegbu, who disclosed this in a statement on Thursday, said the association’s position on the forthcoming elections would be based on the views of Ndigbo.
“Ohanaeze Ndigbo will consult widely before taking any decision on 2019.
“The apex Igbo body will not take any decision on 2019 without subjecting it to the opinion, views, inputs and contributions from a wide spectrum of Igbo society,” Ibegbu said.
However, the Ohanaeze spokesman stressed that the body’s major concern at the moment was the restructuring of Nigeria.
He said, “Our main concern now is the restructuring of Nigeria in sync with other progressive groups and individuals in Nigeria. Once Nigeria is restructured, other things will fall in place.
“We want a level-playing ground for all sections of Nigeria; we want justice, equity and fair play. We want a Nigeria in which the bountiful talents of Ndigbo and other Nigerians will be fully realised. The nation as it is presently constituted kills initiative,” Ibegbu added.
Meanwhile, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has called on the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to first disarm Fulani herdsmen before ordering licensed gun owners to submit them to the police.
Ibegbu, who stated Ohanaeze’s demand in the statement in Enugu, faulted the IG’s directive that all licensed gun owners should submit the firearms to the police.
“Without disarming the armed Fulani herdsmen, it will be inappropriate to tell licensed gun owners to submit them in the face of terror and attacks on innocent citizens in all parts of the country, especially in the Middle Belt and the South.”
Also reacting to the IG’s directive, a pan-Igbo group, Igbo Peoples Congress, described it as “a grand design to expose innocent Nigerians to massacre by armed Fulani herdsmen who ought to be disarmed first before any such order is given.”
The spokesman for the group, Mr. Okey Colbert, expressed regrets over what he described as the “unfortunate reduction of the killings in Benue, Taraba and Adamawa states to a mathematical contest of the number of casualty” by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Maybe if his own children were butchered by hoodlums, he would know how other victims of the Fulani herdsmen terror feel too,” he noted.