A veteran Nigerian journalist based in the United States of America and former Director of Strategy and Communications to President Goodluck Jonathan, Mr Jackson Ude, has taken exception to the seemingly official negligence of the President Bola Tinubu-led administration to the killings of innocent Igbo citizens in the South East.
The communication expert, in a series of tweets on Tuesday, faulted the sit-at-home policy being implemented in the region by the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), describing it as unhelpful.
He wrote, “The continuous killing of Igbos by Igbos under the guise of enforcing a “sit-at-home” order to press a Biafra State is highly irresponsible and condemned. All well-meaning and patriotic Igbos must rise in unison and condemn the wanton killing of Igbos in South East Nigeria.
“Our people have not done any wrong going about in search of their daily bread at a time when poverty and hunger have enveloped the country.
“How does it make sense to continue denying the people you seek to protect their daily means of livelihood by enforcing a “sit-at-home” order, turn around and kill them and then claim to be protecting them from “Fulanis” or “terrorist government?”
He called on agitators for the realisation of Biafra to set up a political platform rather than resorting to violence.
“The most civil way to achieve this Biafra State is to use a political party platform, elect people into the State Houses of Assembly in the South and have them all sign a referendum for a Biafra State.
“The idea that a Biafra state can be achieved through a “sit-at-home” order and the continuous killing of our people is not only childish but criminal,” he said, even as he chided Tinubu for doing little or nothing to address the situation.
“And to have the federal government watch and allow citizens from the South East denied their rights to freedom and killed without appropriate measures to protect them is despicable, irresponsible and dangerous.
“I am also thoroughly disappointed in the lacklustre attitude and the silence of Ohaneze Ndi Igbo while our people are killed by a few armed individuals.
“The bloodshed is too much, and the suffering of the people who are in double jeopardy must be halted.
We must intensify the call for the immediate release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. This is one way the shenanigans of the “sit-at-home” enforcers would end, ” he added.
“If this does not stop, another insurgent group might begin the protection of our people from the “sit-at-home” enforcers, a situation that might throw the whole region into serious chaos! Igbos have suffered enough!” he added.
