Nnamdi Kanu Can’t Dictate For Ndigbo — IPAN 

Raymond Ozoji, Awka

A Pro-Nigeria group known as Igbos for a Progressive Nigeria (IPAN) has condemned in very strong terms the idea of what it described as a minority group setting up a security outfit for the Igbo nation with semblance of Amotekun in the Southwest of the country.

IPAN at a press briefing in Awka maintained that the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu cannot dictate for the entire Igbo nation because it held that the formation of the said security outfit was not a consensus among Igbo leaders.

The group also held that Ndigbo believed in a united Nigeria and that someone cannot be in hiding and continue to incite the masses against the government.

National president of IPAN Mr. Lawrence Onuzulike who presided over the press conference alongside other officers, said Ndigbo were Nigerians and they have contributed in no small measure to the growth and development of the country since independence.

Onuzulike said, “Ndigbo are firm believers in the one Nigeria project. They can be found in many places across the country notwithstanding the remoteness. This shows that the vast majority of Ndigbo believe in a united Federal Republic of Nigeria where one can attain the Nigerian dream while mutually coexisting with other parts of the country.”

According to him, “IPAN notes the state of insecurity in some parts of the Southeast arising from frequent communal clashes due to land disputes, kidnappings as well as clashes between our farmers and herdsmen. We therefore call on President Muhammadu Buhari and our five governors as well as other political leaders in the zone to tackle head-on the cases of insecurity arising from the aforementioned causes.

“President Buhari should as a matter of urgency mandate the relevant agencies to establish grazing reserves where feasible, so that the frequent cases of cattle destroying our people’s farmlands and the attendant violence that greets such destruction can be mitigated. However, IPAN condemns without mincing words the recent establishment of an armed group in the Southeast. This is the height of recklessness and must not be allowed to fester.

“Anyone who sets up a ragtag militant group or shows support to such group must be treated as an enemy of the state and must be brought to book by the security agencies to avoid situations like what transpired in Orlu axis of Imo state last week.”

He said governors, political and community leaders from the Southeast must come out forcefully to condemn the security outfit and push for their immediate arrest and prosecution.

IPAN equally expressed profound gratitude to President Buhari for what it referred to as raft of federal government social interventions in the Southeast geopolitical zone and the country at large aimed at lifting Nigerians out of poverty and abject penury, adding that it was the first time a Nigerian government rolled out social security schemes targeted at the most vulnerable individuals and families in the society.

The IPAN national president noted that the micro-lending investment programme, the N75 billion national youth investment fund, the survival fund, N-power, conditional cash transfer as well as a host of other schemes under the social investment programme were platforms the federal government has deployed to improve the lots of the masses.

The Pro-Nigeria group however called on President Buhari to order an immediate investigation into the final destinations of the various government programmes meant for the people of the Southeast region of the country.

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