The apex Igbo sociocultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, has denied reports of the killings of northerners in the South East.
The group dismissed the report that commodity traders and truck drivers were shunning markets in the region because of alleged killing of more than 100 northerners within one week in the zone.
Secretary General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Alex Ogbonnia, in a statement issued yesterday, described the report quoting the Coordinator of the Northern Consensus Forum, Dr Auwal Abdullahi Aliyu, and others to having directed commodity traders and truck drivers to shun the South East as “disturbing.”
He said, “In the first place, it is a lie from the pit of hell that ‘not less than 100 northerners were murdered in the South East within last week.’
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“The said Dr Aliyu has not been in the picture among the northern leaders resident in the South East and as such is not in a position to speak on the relationship between the northerners and the people of the South East.
“One begins to imagine the very intendment of the purveyor of such a false, mendacious and devilish alarm that ‘not less than 100 northerners have been killed in the South East within last week.
“Introspection will reveal the damage caused on the image of Nigeria among the comity of nations that 100 persons are killed in one week. Apart from the negative image to Nigeria, such unverified front page report is a breach on the duties and civic responsibilities expected of a national daily.”
Ohanaeze described the report as false and a security threat capable of causing pandemonium across the country.
“Investigative journalism suggests that both the number of persons killed and the locations where they were killed should have been indicated in the report.
“Unfortunately, Aliyu has inadvertently reduced the worth of a Nigerian to that of a chicken that could be slaughtered in hundreds within a week. The onus lies on Aliyu to locate the corpses of the said 100 persons.
