A group, the Igbo Women Assembly (IWA) has passionately called on President Bola Tinubu to order for the dismantling and withdrawal without delay of all military checkpoints and roadblocks in the Southeast.
The group said in Umuahia that the checkpoints have become humiliating avenues for pedestrians and motorists plying the highways in the zone as people who use the roads are often subjected to interrogations, raising their hands while crossing the checkpoints, beatings etc, and that such trends portray the Southeast as a war zone when there is actually no war going on in the zone.
Making the call in Umuahia on Tuesday, the President of IWA, Mrs Nneka Chimeziespoke to journalists in Umuahia after a general meeting/inauguration of the group in the Abia State capital, insisted that the aphorism unknown gunmen was imported to the Southeast by enemies of Ndigbo to destabilize it.
The event was used to inaugurate the Igbo Women Assembly in Umuahia.
Mrs Chimezie wondered why a former militant leader, Asari Dokobu who openly said that he was contracted by the authorities to destroy the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) in the Southeast was left to walk around a free man when the zone is being destabilized by the so called unknown gunmen.
“This character came to a national TV to say that his group is fighting alongside the military in some part of Imo State and nobody has arrested him for questioning; and no one has even makes efforts to stop the activities of his men, and yet we’re looking for the unknown gunmen.
“Are they not the unknown gunmen? Why should such a character be left to move around without questioning by the authorities? She asked, even as she used theopportunity to call for the immediate and unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of IPOB.
Kanu’s continued incarceration: Mrs Chimezie emphasized, has continued to worsen the security situation in the zone. She therefore solicited for the reestablishment of community and village vigilantes across the zone.
“We recall that at the beginning of the invasion of the Southeast, vigilantes in many villages and communities were disbanded as the military claimed it wanted to fight insecurity singlehandedly. Now, it has proven that it cannot do it alone as the security situation has continued to worsen. So, let’s go back to the community to community vigilantes to safeguard our places and entire southeast”, IWA President declared.
She used the forum to call on the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo to cede the presidency of the apex Igbo cultural organization to Rivers State, warning against handpicking of any individual by some persons to fill the vacancy on January 10, 2025.
“The current Ohanaeze Presidency should go to Igbos in Rivers State; unless they come out clearly to say that they’re not Igbo, then it should return to Abia State”, Mrs Chimezie counseled.
Speaking on why IWA was formed, Mrs Chimezie disclosed that the group was formed to promote Igbo language and culture, train Igbo children on decent behaviours as well as make them speak the Igbo language and practice the culture in addition to ensuring that women and children in Igbo land maintain a lifestyle of purity, honesty, respectability and uprightness as depicted in the culture.
Earlier in her incisive lecture, Prof Mrs Nkechinyere Ohaike of the National Institute of Nigerian Languages, Aba (NINLAN) warned the Igbo not to allow their mother tongue to be extinct in the near future as predicted by the United Nations Educational,Scientific Cultural Organization (UNESCO); even she tasked Igbo women to always teach their children their language and culture.
Prof Ohaike, who is a professor of Translation Studies in Igbo Language, declared “language tells where you come from; it gives you an identity, makes you feel that you belong to a people or a group and not an orphan and gives you self esteem”.
She therefore called for institution of scholarships for students studying the Igbo language as well as inauguration of dancing and citation competitions in the states across Igbo land. The Prof Ohaike also suggested the making of the language a compulsory subjects in primary and post primary schools in Igbo land.
The Chairman of the occasion, Professor Godwin Asomugha who also spoke at the event condemned the practice whereby parents in Igbo land prevent their children from speaking or practicing the Igbo language and culture and described such behaviour as out of order.
The Umuahia chapter of the IWA, Pastor Mrs. Ijeoma Umunna and a retired Permanent Secretary in Abia State, Lady Chinedu Brown in their separate responses assured that the group will pursue with Vigor the interest and welfare of women particularly Igbo women in the state.
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