The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has described the demolition of some properties by the Lagos state government as a calculated economic sabotage targeted against Ndigbo who are busy developing other regions in Nigeria instead of going home to develop theirs.
It would be recalled that the Lagos State Ministry of the Environment, in its drive for urban renewal and permanent solution to perennial flooding, conducted mass demolition of properties built on a drainage setback in the Lekki Phase II and Ikota areas of the state.
The demolition exercise, it was learnt, began at Mobil Road and Gedegede community in the highbrow Lekki Phase II following the expiration of several contravention notices served on the property owners.
However, reacting to the demolition exercise, the pro-Biafra group in a statement by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, called on Igbo people in the diaspora to come back and invest in their homeland.
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“The criminal silence of Igbo leaders shows that they are either cowards or tacitly in support of economic sabotage against Ndigbo, an act any responsible person must condemn.
“What has put Igbo political leaders and Ohanaeze Ndigbo in this docile and cowardly situation is that they can’t unanimously condemn the ethnic profiling and systemic destruction of Igbo assets by the Lagos State government.
“Why are these men afraid of defending Ndigbo in their so-called one Nigeria they claim to be a part of and desperately working to protect?
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“The Igbo politicians, governors, senators, members of the House of Representatives, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide leaders, traditional rulers, businessmen and religious leaders should have a meeting to discuss how to secure Igbo businessmen and investments in Lagos State.
“Yoruba groups and politicians are together for this against Ndigbo in Lagos State. Our people must, therefore, take a stand against these actions against Ndigbo by the Lagos State government and their collaborators.
“The same wind that blew in the 1960s that forced Biafrans to declare the Independent State of Biafra from the damnable Republic of Nigeria is blowing again.
“As Ndigbo in the North are systematically and silently being killed and at the same time, private residences and market places of Ndigbo in Lagos State are being demolished and forcefully taken over by the state government, we urge Ndigbo to be on alert.
“Nigeria will not survive this renewed Igbophobia and ethnic annihilation agenda against Ndigbo. As successive governments in Nigeria try hard to suffocate Ndigbo, Nigeria will gradually descend into the abyss while Ndigbo and Biafrans will continue to triumph.
“With the level of silence among Yoruba governors, Afenifere leaders and their politicians show that they are together in this fight against Ndigbo in Lagos. Sadly, Igbo leaders are mute over this insult to Ndigbo.
“With what the Lagos government is doing against Ndigbo and the criminal silence of South-West governors, is there any clear indication that the Yoruba are friends of Ndigbo?
“If the Lagos State government can be so wicked and cruel to destroy the property of Ndigbo at this time, it is a demonstration that they don’t want Ndigbo in their region. That goes a long way to show that the federalism that Nigeria claims to practice is a fraud.