Ohanaeze tackles Buratai over threat to South East governors

The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has tackled the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen. Tukur Buratai, over what was regarded as his reported open threat to five governors of the South East states.

In a statement issued in Enugu on Wednesday by its Acting Secretary General and National Publicity Secretary, Prince Uche Achi-Okpaga, the association stated that the attention of Ohanaeze Ndigbo was drawn to a statement credited to the Chief of Army Staff, General Tukur Buratai, threatening to impose a state of emergency in the South East if governors of the states allowed any further attack on security forces in the states.

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Ohanaeze Ndigbo said while it condemned violence in any form in the states, it takes particular exception to an “open threat and warning to South East governors who, by the country’s constitution, are chief security officers of their states, but are lame ducks in practice as all security commands come  from Abuja.”

The apex Igbo body said, “It was particularly provocative for General Buratai to issue such a warning to governors of the South East where relative peace prevails while he has not done the same in the “North Central, North West, and North East which have become theatres of war, and where army posts and bases have been subjected to incessant attacks by the Boko Haram, ISWA/ISIS, bandits, and Fulani herdsmen, killing and maiming Nigerian soldiers.”

Ohanaeze Ndigbo also wondered where the army chief derived the power to issue such a threat which under the country’s constitution can only be carried out by the National Assembly on demand by the President.

“It is highly surprising that an army chief who was watching as the governor of Katsina State was negotiating and taking pictures with armed bandits would turn round to threaten to impose a state of emergency in states where unarmed citizens are agitating against the harsh and inhuman conditions they have been subjected to by their country.

“Ohanaeze Ndigbo believes that the threat by General Buratai is a vindication of the belief that the South East is being regarded as a conquered territory, exemplified in the army of occupation stationed in the area,” Ohanaeze said.