Group Raises the Alarm Over Alleged Threat To Lives

The Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria (MMWG) has alerted the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mal Nuhu Ribadu, the Defence Minister, Gen. Christopher Musa and the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Kayode Egbetokun, to what it called a threat to the lives of the Igbo Muslims in the South East.

The group said its appeal to the security chiefs followed the circulation of audio clips voiced by one Maazi Kanayo calling on Igbo citizens to abduct any Igbo Muslim they found and kill him or her by burying them alive.

In a statement signed by its publicity secretary, Dr Yusuf Agbabiaka and the Enugu State coordinator, Ustaz Isa Christian Okonkwo, the MMWG called on the Enugu State Police Command and other security agencies in the South East to urgently track down the criminals intimidating and harassing Muslim Igbos anywhere in the country.

According to the group, Islam, as a religion, is not new in Igbo land, pointing out that Islam has been existing there for close to 200 years.

“For the past 72 years, the Islamic Centre in Afikpo, Ebonyi State, established by the late Alh Ibrahim Nwagui, had been in existence, training thousands of Muslim youths, most of whom have become professors, engineers and scholars in various fields,” it stated.

Highlighting the dangers inherent in the threats to the lives of Muslim Igbo, the group urged security forces to trace the group that calls itself “Ohaukwu Reporters, sending life-threatening messages electronically out of religious fanaticism and intolerance”.

The MMWG said “the messages of hate, wicked and murderous intention were being sent to the people of Enugu State, especially in Nsukka, where the life of an  Islamic Scholar and Imam of Alor-Agu in Igbo-Eze LG of Enugu State, Imam Sirajudeen Ugwu Nwansukka, is being threatened.”

It urged the security agencies in the country to be more proactive instead of being reactive, adding that “the bane of our Security problems in Nigeria has been a lack of a proactive approach, which always makes our problems disastrous”.