Some elders from the South-East have called on the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, to employ every means to deal mercilessly with members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra.
In a statement on Friday, the elders under the aegis of Conference of Concerned Igbo Elders for Peace and National Unity, condemned the alleged attack on the security men by IPOB members in Orlu council of Imo State.
In the statement jointly signed by its National President, Mazi Prof William Okocha and National Secretary, Barr Miss Irene Chizoba, the elders frowned at IPOB for carrying out Tuesday’s attack on Abayi police station in Aba, Osisioma Ngwa Local Council of Abia State, where two police officers died with the station burnt down.
The group also called on Igbo sons and daughters to distant themselves from IPOB, saying they group remains a “terrorist organisation”.
Part of the statement read, “We use this opportunity to call on the military and other concerned authorities to bring the full weight of the law to bear on the Nnamdi Kanu-led Indigenous People of Biafra, in a manner that will ensure the restoration of permanent peace and order to the South-East region.
“As respected elders committed to national unity, peace and cohesion, we rise in condemnation of the violent activities of IPOB, which we hasten to note, is not a representation of the Igbo.
“Ndigbo are peace-loving and peace-building people, whose commitment to the national cause is irrevocable, regardless of the negative tendencies of a few deviants, who have constituted themselves into cogs in the wheel of progress.”