The World Igbo Congress, WIC, a body comprising all Igbo living in the United States of America has alerted the international community and rights organisations, of the shoot-at-sight order allegedly issued by the Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Usman Alkali-Baba, against Igbo youth.
This was contained in a statement issued Sunday and signed by four leaders of the group, Prof. Anthony Ejiofor, Chairman of the World Igbo Congress; Dr Nwachukwu Anakwenze Chairman, Igbo World Assembly; Sir Ngozi Odumuko, Executive Secretary, Nzuko Umunna; and Elder Amadiebube Mbama, Coordinator, Joint Action Committee.
The body also threatened that “should the government and law enforcement agents continue with the bloodletting in the once peaceful South-east, President Muhammadu Buhari and his service chiefs will have cases to answer at the International Criminal Court (ICC).”
The group condemned the statement credited to the IGP Baba, noting that more worrisome is the posture of the federal government and response by the law enforcement agents to the situation.
They added that: “For some reasons that seem odious and ominous, the utterances from the presidency, government and law enforcement officials are laced with a desire to turn the region into a war zone rather than seek for its peace, stability and development.
“On Tuesday, May 18, 2021, Nigeria’s number one law enforcement officer was quoted to have said: ‘If anyone accuses you of human rights violation, the report will come to my table and you know what I will do. So, take the battle to them wherever they are and kill them all. Don’t wait for an order.”
The group said if the above statement was true, it was a call for genocide, extra judicial killings and human rights violations against people of the South east and South-South regions.
The group said: “We have waited to be sure that the police boss was either misquoted or had a Freudian slip that would be denied and clarified, but none of that was done.
“Not only are we shocked that the IGP Baba did not deny and disassociate himself from such murderous statement, we are equally surprised that the presidency failed to call him to order and reassure the people of the zones who are already traumatised by such order.
“We want to believe that this is not a state policy to continue to designate the old Eastern region as an occupied territory since the end of the Biafra-Nigerian civil war.”
