The Ohanaeze Ndigbo yesterday deplored the recent arrest of 112 members of the women wing of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and their subsequent arraignment in court for ‘unlawful assembly’ and ‘treasonable felony’.
The Igbo socio-cultural group said the women’s arrest amounted to double standard by government.
The women were arrested following their protest in Owerri, Imo State, demanding a referendum and the whereabouts of the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
They were let off on Friday after the charges against them were dropped.
However, an unimpressed Ohanaeze said there was no basis to arrest the women in the first instance.
“Boko Haram loot, plunder, kidnap but the government negotiates with them, spending unappropriated and undisclosed sums! Yet IPOB is proscribed for just speaking up. Arewa youths spoke treason and were defended by Governors and treated with privilege,” President General of Ohanaeze, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, said in a statement.
Nwodo who said he is currently recuperating outside the country also wondered why IPOB remains proscribed while, herdsmen and their sponsors “move about freely, reeling out new threats, occupying Southern and Middle Belt farms forcibly, with the law enforcement agents either aiding them or intentionally looking away.”
He added: “churches are invaded, priests killed, yet no one is arrested. Thousands are killed; thousands are rendered homeless, no one cares. IDPS are established only when the displaced come from a favoured section of the country.
“No wonder our security chiefs are appointed on the basis of where they come from. Any Igbo who is not angry at the situation in the country today must have his head re-examined. Now, they contemplate Operation Python Dance 3 without dealing with the carnage of Operation Python Dance 2 where UN rules of engagement were flagrantly violated. Who won’t be angry under these circumstances?
“The provocation, double standards, and subjection to servitude far outweigh the denigration their false propaganda subjected us to.”
Nwodo asked Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State not to allow his anger at IPOB’s verbal provocations override his paternity.
He said: “Borrow a leaf from me. I am abroad and emerging from theatre for a mild surgery and I have read how it is being said that Ohanaeze and the South East governors masterminded you to detain our sisters, but note that the false propaganda did not stop me from directing Ohanaeze National Publicity Secretary to condemn the detention.
“The provocation, double standards, and subjection to servitude far outweigh the denigration their false propaganda subjected us to.
“Never again shall we Igbo, at this critical time, shoot ourselves again on the foot. No matter how provocative, incendiary and unruly IPOB may be, they are our children. Aggrieved children can sometimes lose their guard. May our endurance not be stretched to the point where it challenges Hooke’s law on elastic limit.”