Igbo group flays Wike over Rivers killings, tasks FG on youths’ demands

TRACKING___World Igbo Congress (WIC) has berated Governor Nyesom Wike for issuing an executive order that allegedly instigated mass killing of people from the ethnic nationality in Oyigbo and Port Harcourt areas of Rivers State.

In a statement issued yesterday by its public relations officer, Basil Onwukwe, the group urged the Federal Government to muster the political will in addressing demands of the #EndSARS protesters.

It charged the authorities on an immediate de-escalation process to ease tension and restore normalcy for meaningful reforms to take place.

Onwukwe alleged: “Governor Wike’s acquiescence to military’s high-handedness in the search and destruction of IPOB members and properties leaves no pretence about collaboration in the gruesome killing, torture and maltreatment of Igbo of South East extraction residing in Oyigbo and Port Harcourt areas of the state.

“The use of Nigerian military as fire-brigade to the crisis, with its poor record in managing tensed and fluid political situations, is ill-informed.”

WIC also condemned the death of some security agents during the nationwide protests, stressing that it was “improper for the Federal Government to engage in wanton killing, torture and maiming of Igbo youths in a deliberately crafted reprisals that only occurred in the Igbo-concentrated areas of the federation.”

It continued: “#EndSARS movement involved youths of all ethnic nationalities and the government’s refusal to pay the populace back with this most oppressive and hapless approach is sad, to say the least. To single Igbo youths out for counter-offensives is not auguring well for our national politics.

“WIC’s preliminary inquiry reveals gruesome accounts of some residents seeing dead bodies on the streets allegedly shot by soldiers on deadly reprisals.”

The group further said: “WIC calls for immediate investigation by Amnesty International and other foreign human rights agencies. The congress also demands the imposition of sanctions, including travel-bans, on Nigerian officials found complicit in the killing of unarmed Igbo youths at Oyigbo and Port Harcourt in Rivers State.”