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Apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo has condemned in strong words the burning of Akere Spare Parts Market in Olodi-Apapa area of Lagos and the recent launching of an attack on South-Easterners in the state.
In a statement obtained by The Eastern Updates on Friday, the National Publicity Secretary, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Dr. Chiedozie Alex Ogbonnia said, ‘Ohanaeze Worldwide has received reports from our Lagos State chapter that the Akere Spare Parts Market, Lagos, has been set on fire with goods worth billions of naira.
‘The report also revealed that a 65-year-old security man was shot dead before the inferno. The spare parts market is an Igbo dominated market. This report is in consonance with the various threats issued by both the lowly and barbaric hoodlums before the general elections that a vote against the APC will incur wrath.’
‘It is very regrettable that while the several eminent conscientious amongst the Yoruba are lending noble hands for a better Nigeria some miscreants and hoodlums are busy destroying the invaluable cordial relationship between the Igbo and the Yoruba.
‘It is a common knowledge that the voting on February 25, 2023, was very blind to ethnicity. What the oppressed and the dispossessed masses expressed was a desire to create a new Nigeria through Mr. Peter Obi. It goes without saying that it requires an exceptional audacious and capacious un-Nigerian Nigerian to pull Nigeria out of the woods. Anyone who has watched Peter Obi closely since 40 years ago will discern that Obi is specially sent from heaven to redeem Nigeria from its down-ward spiral.
‘The presidential candidate of the APC in the last election, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, also enjoyed a good Igbo supporters in Lagos. Why all these?
‘The Igbo persecutions are not likely to stop the Igbo entrepreneurship, cosmopolitanism and resilience. The Igbo are found everywhere to be hardworking. They strive to cooperate with and add vital infrastructural values to the host community. This is the ideal, worthy of emulation.
‘It must also be pointed out that before the general election, various ethnic cultural groups such as the Afenifere, an umbrella socio-cultural organisation for the Yoruba; the PANDEF, the Middle Belt, Arewa groups, etc were in the forefront of the Obi-Datti movement and thousands of Yoruba youths were deeply committed to the cause.
‘Based on the foregoing, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide restrains from viewing the barbaric attack on Igbo traders with an ethnic stereotype, rather all men of goodwill are enjoined to rise in one voice to condemn the primitive and primordial display of vile and hate against the Igbo.
‘The Secretary-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Ambassador Okey Emuchay, MFR calls on President Muhammadu Buhari, the governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu, security agencies and indeed the lovers of democracy to rise in defence of democracy in Nigeria.
‘We also call for the interference of the international community at this point because the ignored injustice somewhere will ultimately have reverberations elsewhere and everywhere,’ he said.
Similarly, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the burning of Lagos auto parts market as barbaric.
The party condemned in very strong terms the unprovoked burning of Akere Motor Parts and Allied Dealers Market in Lagos by suspected hoodlums.
The PDP, in a statement by its spokesman, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, bewailed the heartless killing of 65 years old Baba Hakeem, the brave security guard, at the market, who was reportedly shot dead by the arsonists before touching the market to destroy goods worth hundreds of millions of naira and devastate the lives and means of livelihood of innocent, hard-working Nigerians.
