BY Tony Edike
ENUGU—THE Igbo Leaders of Thought said yesterday that it has articulated a security awareness programme which the South East Governor’s Forum would work with in order to secure Igboland from Boko Haram insurgents.
The Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe, and the secretary of the group, Professor Elo Amucheazi, have been appointed to liaise with the South East governors to fine tune the security programme for the zone.
The group, which made this known in a statement issued by its Deputy Secretary, Evangelist Elliot Uko, in Enugu, however, frowned on the deployment of northerners as Commissioners of Police in South East states.
The statement read: “The Igbo Leaders of Thought wonders out aloud why all the police commissioners posted to the South East should be Fulani/ Muslims. Are there no police commissioners from the Middle Belt, South South or South West that could be posted to the South East?”
“With the shielding of the six Boko Haram bombers arrested at the Owerri Church by the Imo State Commissioner of Police, we hereby reject the continual occupation of the South East by Hausa/Fulani Moslem police Commissioners.
“We hereby demand that the CPs Abubakar Adamu Mohamed of Enugu, Usuman Gwari of Anambra, Maigari Dikko of Ebonyi, Abdulmajid Ali of Imo and Adamu Ibrahim of Abia should be immediately juggled and redeployed as we feel uncomfortable with the officers in charge of the south east as Boko Haram boasts of plans to attack the south.”
The Igbo leaders, however, urged the residents of the South East and South South to remain at alert and vigilant saying the news of the infiltration of the region by Boko Haram appeared to be real.
“Suspicious individuals and packages must be reported promptly to the relevant security agencies,” it stated.
The group expressed its profound gratitude to Prof Akin Osibogun, the Chief Medical Director and the management of Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH for not only refunding its leader, Prof Ben Nwabueze, the half a million naira he deposited at the hospital last month for treatment of his ailment, but also “showing heart touching care and commitment to his quick recovery.”
“We also commend the former governor of Anambra State ex-Governor Peter Obi for the great care and early response he exhibited when our leader was hospitalized at LUTH over a month ago. We thank all those who through emails calls, and visits showed great solidarity during the days following his unfortunate bathroom fall,” the group further said.
Vanguard
