The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, has pledged to use non-kinetic approach to fix the security challenges confronting the South East zone by appealing to people causing bloodshed to give peace a chance.
The president-general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, made this known during a press conference organised to announce the programme for September 29 Igbo Day celebration, slated for Enugu.
Iwuanyanwu, who described the killings in the southeast as ‘strange’, stressed that “as a father, I am tired of the death of my children, I will do everything possible to end this calamity.”
According to him, each time I hear anybody killed, I feel sad because most of them are doing what they are doing because of hunger and unemployment.
“I am not saying that hunger and unemployment will make one to be a criminal but not everyone has capacity to endure hunger,” he said.
The Ohanaeze president-general highlighted that security of every place in Nigeria was the collective responsibility of everyone, pointing out that the federal government alone cannot handle this ugly development.
He revealed that during the Igbo Day Celebration, the organisation would announce the non-kinetic approach to end insecurity in the region.
“As a father, I will call and appeal to everybody to embrace peace and the non-kinetic approach requires everybody’s support both state and the federal government for us to have peace in southeast.
“Whatever sacrifice to bring non-kinetic approach to put an end to bloodshed and killing in Igboland, I will apply same.
“I am going to get in touch with these people by all means and beg them, so as to restore peace and tranquility in the zone,” he said.
He said he would send a delegation to Finland and other places to beg those causing bloodshed in the southeast.
“We are not going to arrest or kill them. I don’t want to kill any of our children; we are going to appeal to them to tell us what they want us to do.
“Those who are hungry, we will find them something to do to keep them happier, bloodshed and killing should stop.
“It is not easy to stop a hungry person who has found means of getting livelihood through guns but as a father, I will go and cry to them and I am praying God that these my approach would yield result.”
He added that he would also resolve all the political crisis among the political leaders in the zone by reconciling them to move the region forward.
The Igbo leader appealed to the federal government to assist the zone with the reconstruction of railways, creation of seaports and more international airports to ease their businesses.
Iwuanyanwu submitted that “The issue of sharing rice as palliative does not have any meaning to any Igbo man but what you can do for him is to give him opportunity to make a living for himself.”
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