A group, Igbo Leaders of Thought, ILT, has raised an objection to what it perceived as domination of police commands in the South-East by commissioners of northern origin.
The ILT, made up of prominent Igbo leaders like legal luminary and former Secretary-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Prof. Ben Nwabueze, and the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe, among others, said it was ‘outraged’ at the police shielding of the Boko Haram suspects arrested in Owerri.
The group, in a statement by its deputy secretary, Elliot Uko, warned against any official encouraging the infiltration of insurgents in South-East states.
The group stated that the commissioners of police of northern origin in the five South-Eastern states should be transferred out of the zone.
It charged Ndigbo to remain vigilant against the possible infiltration of insurgents in the zone.
“The ILT wonders out aloud why all the police commissioners posted to the South-East should be Fulani and Muslims. Are there no police commissioners from the Middle Belt, South-South or South- West that could be posted to the South-East?
“With the shielding of the six Boko Haram bombers arrested at the Owerri Church by the Imo State Commissioner of Police, we hereby reject the continual occupation of the South-East by Hausa/Fulani Muslim police commissioners.
“We hereby demand that the CPs Abubakar Mohammed of Enugu, Usuman Gwari of Anambra, Maigari Dikko of Ebonyi, Abdulmajid Ali of Imo and Adamu Ibrahim of Abia should be immediately juggled and redeployed, as we feel uncomfortable with the officers in charge of the South-East, as Boko Haram boasts of plans to attack to South. A stitch in time saves nine,” the ILT said.
It also pleaded with the residents of the South-East and South-South to remain alert and vigilant, as the news of the infiltration of the zone by Boko Haram ‘seemed real’.
The ILT urged that suspicious individuals and packages must be reported promptly to the relevant security agencies.
Uko added that the security committee of ILT articulated a security awareness programme which the South-East Governors’ Forum would work on, in order to secure Igboland from Boko Haram insurgents.
“The Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe and the Secretary of ILT, Prof Elo Amucheazi, will soon liaise with the South-East governors to finetune the South-East security programme.
