The President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, on Tuesday condemned the attack and burning down of the residence of the IPOB lawyer, Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor.
In a release by the media adviser to the President General, Chief Emeka Attamah, the apex Igbo cultural organization called for a judicial inquiry into the case of unprovoked attack on a law-abiding citizen of the country whose only crime is that he peacefully objects to the maltreatment of his people.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo observed that the spurious claim by the police that Barrister Ejiofor was “involved in a case of abduction, assault occasioning harm and malicious damage to property” holds no water as nobody was mentioned as the victim of the allegations.
It said that assuming without conceding that Barrister Ejiofor was culpable on a charge of abduction, the only option in law available to the police is arrest and prosecution under the laws of Nigeria and not deliberate arson and wanton destruction of his family home.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo further stated that “even before it’s wrongful proscribing, IPOB had never been a violent group and could not have summoned enough force to attack and kill any policemen to warrant drafting in a reinforcement”.
Nwodo frowned at the situation where any mild expression of dissent against the manifest injustice being perpetrated against a particular ethnic group in the country will be met with maximum force by the Federal Government.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo called for a halt to the apparent and incessant physical, economic and political harassment of Ndigbo in a country watered with their blood and who have striven to keep and grow the country with their presence in all nooks and crannies of Nigeria.