Nnewi: Former Chairman, Police Service Commission, PSC,
Chief Simon Okeke, yesterday, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to set up a
judicial commission of inquiry to find the level of involvement of soldiers on
the alleged shooting of members of Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and other Biafra agitators.
He said the shooting of Igbo youths under any guise and
without any provocation by security agents had become very unacceptable and
must stop because it is not acceptable in any civilized society that people,
who were protesting over an issue should be shot dead extra- judicially, and
somebody would be talking about extant Rule of Engagement, ROE.
Addressing newsmen yesterday in his Akathar Lodge, Amichi,
Chief Okeke expressed shock over what he
called criminal silence of Igbo elders on the incident of May 30, 2016 in Nkpor and other parts of Onitsha.
He said it was the second time Biafra agitators were allegedly killed in
Anambra state and the Igbo elders were keeping quiet, while some who called
themselves South East Group for Change, went to Abuja the next day as if
nothing happened, to have hand-shake
with the President, without mentioning anything
about the killings or registering their displeasure.
“I was in New York
when I heard about the killing and I was so angry that I had to call
the President General of Ohanaeze
Ndigbo, Chief Gary Igarewey to ask him what they had done and I was happy with
his answer on that incident, including
the action they took over the beheading
of the Igbo woman in Kano State and the other one in Niger State.
“But I was shocked that a day after the shooting in Anambra
State, an elder statesman of Igbo extraction led a group called South East
Group for Change to meet with the President and was dumb on the killing,” he
said.
Chief Okeke said that there was no war going on in the South
East and South South states, just as the IPOB and Movement for the
Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, were not violent groups
and do not carry arms.
“In the civilized world, the military does not come out to
check the activities of people protesting. It is the police that is responsible
for that. They use water cannons to ensure that there is no break-down of law
and order and not deploying the armed forces to open fire on innocent people
who are protesting, forgetting that in some cases, some non-members show
solidarity to the protesting group and in the process, members and non-members
may be killed,” he said.
He also appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to release
Mr. Nnamdi Kanu in order to stop further killings of Igbo youths, because the
continued detention of the IPOB leader and Director of Radio Biafra had paved
way for the soldiers to shoot protesting people in the South East and give
flimsy reasons for their action.
By Chimaobi Nwaiwu
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