The Biafra Liberation and Emancipation Movement has called on Igbos in the country to adopt self defence mechanisms in view of threats by some northerners and Niger Delta ex-warlords ahead of the 2015 general elections in the country.
The group at an expanded assembly held at Zodiac Hotel, Independent Layout in Enugu yesterday, said they were compelled after observing deliberations of the Niger Delta ex-warlords held at Yenegoa, which discussed very important issues bordering on the survival of our democracy and continual co-existence.
It said it was only wise for an average Igboman who had been the principal target of every form of ethno-religious crisis in Nigeria to take caution to avoid unnecessary loss of lives and properties ahead of threats by some neo-feudalists to seize power through the back door.
The group stated that while its deliberations was still ongoing, the news came again from Minna in North central Nigeria that campaign vehicles of President Goodluck Jonathan were on fire, an action which they viewed as a premeditated sinister motive to achieve earlier threats by some highly placed opposition leaders in the country to form a parallel government should one of their own fail to clinch the presidency at all cost.
President-General of BLEM, Marshal Obumneme Ozoani and others who signed the communiqué, noted that some neo-feudal warlords have found the All Progressives Congress, APC, and its strongholds as a breeding ground to actualise their evil ambition against the good people of Nigeria and therefore warned that no more shall the blood of an Igbo used as a sacrifice to satisfy the thirst of an average northerner for violence, stating clearly that the South-east has remained too quiet since the end of the civil war to swallow further injustices and maltreatment by other majority groups in the country who believe in violence, intimidation, coercion, threats and crude force as a means of acquiring power to preside over the affairs of others in the country.
The statement further warned that the conspiracy of the North-west and North-east 1990 through one Ogah to proclaim and exercise itself as a territory from Nigeria has crippled into the North Central as a launch pad for violence against other ethnic minorities and Nigerians are implored to rise up against these new warlords who are momentarily reacting to their depression, ignorance and frustration to appropriate the resources of this nation to themselves and allies as they have always done in the past.
“We make bold to unequivocally state after carefully observing, analysing and deliberating on the resolution of the Niger-Delta ex-warlords to protect its citizenry and our nascent democracy, the congress wishes to unanimously endorse and uphold all critical resolutions of the Yenegoa convention for self-protection and defence of every Igboman in Nigeria during and after the 2015 general elections.
“The Igbo nation has remained the principal targets of hoodlums during every ethno-religious crisis that took place in Nigeria after independence which clearly suggest some conspiracy against the Igbos by Northern leaders to pursue an agenda against our people, we hereby reinstate our commitment to the growth of Nigeria’s democracy, however not to allow neo-feudalism to ruin our hard earned achievements in the name of winning elections at all cost despite the free democratic landscape being provided by the constitution for every Nigerian to aspire to the highest office in the land.
“We forbid the blood of any Igboman to be spilled during or after the elections, on this premise we call on the Northern traditional rulers to call their children to order or equally get ready to confront us as they continue to draw the battle line,” the statement concluded.
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