The Association of Igbo Town Unions (ASITU) has emphasised its determination to champion the battle against the Lagos State Government’s destruction of Igbo properties worth trillions of naira.
The national president of ASITU, Chief Emeka Diwe, made this known while addressing a World Press Conference in Umuahia, the capital of Abia State.
He condemned the demolition exercise by agents of the Lagos State government.
Chief Diwe, flanked by executives of ASITU, stressed that the Lagos State government agents demolished properties belonging to Igbos without proper notice and feigned ignorance of evidential documents to prove that the buildings were acquired correctly from the same government that sought to destroy them.
The national president of ASITU called on Igbos worldwide, particularly in Lagos, to embrace the Aku Ruo Ulu Investments Initiative. This well-researched blueprint seeks to return a percentage of their investment in the home.
Chief Diwe explained that the embrace of the Aku Ruo Ulu Investments Initiative will assist in securing Igbo investments, contrary to the ongoing destruction of properties of the Igbos going on in Lagos.
He said, “Embrace with renewed vigour, the philosophy of Aku Ruo Ulo, let wealth return home. Invest in Igboland. Built in Igboland. Develop industries in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo States. Make our homeland an economic powerhouse, so strong, prosperous, and industrialised that it becomes a foundation of strength from which we engage Nigeria and the world with confidence, not vulnerability.
“Aku Ruo Ulo is not about retreat or secession; it is about building from a position of strength. It is about ensuring that while we continue to invest across Nigeria, we
have an economically vibrant home base that cannot be threatened and gives us dignity and security. It is about making Igboland so attractive for investment that people from all over Nigeria will want to come, invest, and build there, just as we have done in Lagos and everywhere else. That is true nation building: mutual investment, mutual respect, mutual prosperity”.
Chief Diwe revealed that no other ethnic group in Nigeria has so thoroughly embraced the idea of a unified Nigerian state through their actions, their investments, and their presence everywhere, yet the Igbos are consistently made to feel unwelcome.
Chief Diwe submitted that the world must understand that the Igbo man sees himself as Biafran to the extent that he feels unwelcome in Nigeria, not because he inherently desires separation.
The ASITU boss elaborated that the Igbos retreat into ethnic identity when national identity is denied and speak of Biafra, when Nigeria speaks to them in the language of demolitions, marginalisation and exclusion.
ASITU, however, expressed astonishment that lands and structures, whose documents were legally acquired, were brought down by the Lagos State government, through a false claim that the demolished buildings were illegally erected.
Chief Diwe noted that these acts represent a deliberate intention by the Lagos State government and its agents to unleash untoward hardship on the Igbos by destroying their life’s investment, which is a livelihood source for thousands of dependants.
The national president of ASITU called on the federal government, international communities, stakeholders, and all those who respect human rights and privileges to intervene in the destruction of Igbo property in Lagos.
