A recent shoot-on-sight order against persons considered enemies of state in the Southeast by President Muhammadu Buhari, is worrisome. Amby Uneze writes
The recent shoot-on-sight order by President Muhammadu Buhari cannot be the solution to the insecurity in the Southeast today. Besides, importing soldiers and police personnel from the Northern part of the country to the Southeast with the charge to shoot-on-sight is more of a military culture. The essence of democratic rule is the total involvement of the people in the governance of their affairs and not government by force or kill-on-sight.
Before the current madness of attacking police and correctional facilities by the so-called unknown gunmen in Imo State, the people of the state had known peace all the while. The state and its people were regarded as one of the most peaceful states, where visitors and people from other warring zones found peace.
…The move could trigger another programme” Adebanjo warns
Ola Ajayi, Ibadan
AFENIFERE, an apex Yoruba association has described the shoot-on-sight order given to soldiers in the South East by President Muhammadu Buhari as a move that would further threaten the unity and ruptured peace in the country.
The order which was given to the soldiers who are predominantly Northerners without first exploring the option of dialogue, the association maintained, had further fuelled the suspicion that President Buhari did not consider the life of another ethnic group sacred but that of Fulani, his kinsmen.
South-East: Afenifere faults Buhari’s shoot-at-sight order
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By Anayo Okoli, Regional Editor South East, Kingsley Omonobi, Dennis Agbo, Ikechukwu Odu & Steve Oko
WITH one voice, a collection of Igbo elders and leading organisations, yesterday, raised alarm over alleged ethnic cleansing plans against the Igbo ethnic nationality in Nigeria.
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There is palpable tension and fear in South-East and South-South states following plans by the Federal Government to deploy more military assets, including troops, intelligence personnel and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in the areas.
Already, a clampdown is ongoing, targeted at pro-Biafra groups there including newspaper distributors and vendors selling published materials on Biafra.
The two regions, had, in recent weeks, come under attack by armed groups, who killed policemen as well as burnt police stations and correctional facilities in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo, Enugu, Akwa Ibom and Rivers States.
Imo has been the worst hit, as security forces have been combing the communities in search of members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) and its vigilante outfit, Eastern Security Network (ESN). ESN commander, Kanayo Nwokike (Ikonso) was recently ‘neutralized’ by security forces in his community, Awomamma in Oru East, Imo State, while
Views: Visits 14 …Army denies posting only Northern Commanders to quell tensions in S’East …Unknown gunmen in S’East have chosen wrong target Nwodo …Gunmen kill five, set vigilance office, vehicle ablaze in Anambra By Anayo Okoli, Regional Editor, South-East, Vincent Ujumadu, Kingsley Omonobi & Ikechukwu Odu The Nigerian Army and the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, yesterday, disagreed over the alleged deployment of northern commanders to south-east and south-south with the Igbo group frowning at the shoot-at-sight order given to Nigerian soldiers on Igbo youths. Ohanaeze warned that Nigerian government should learn a lesson from history by not fighting an unwinnable war against nationalism, advising the Buhari- led government to “seek possible peaceful options that are the only solution that guarantees national unity and peaceful coexistence”.