CNG condemns alleged killings of northerners in Igbo communities

Following the killing of a northern pregnant woman named Fatimah and her three children in Anambra State, the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) has condemned the “unrelenting attacks and killings of northerners passing through or residing among Igbo communities as minorities.”

In a statement Tuesday by the group’s spokesperson, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, the CNG said: “We note that hate campaigns and propaganda being conducted by certain interest groups in the South-east in the form of regional and ethnic agitators have emboldened the outlawed terrorist IPOB/ESN to carry out these unprovoked evictions, attacks, killings, destructions of properties and other forms of violations against northerners in various parts of the South East.

“We are particularly disturbed by the reports of the brutal murder of a mother and her four children for the only sin of being northerners. This followed other reports that some trucks conveying goods to the South were also set ablaze in Anambra at the weekend and the drivers and other occupants were killed, injured or disappeared without a trace.

“In sets of gory video clips trending online and seen by CNG, the victims were seen lying in the pool of their blood with bullets spread around and a narrator speaking in Igbo saying, “Everybody should look at this video that they have shot a woman and her four children. They are from the North. And they are shooting everybody they see on the street; so people should be careful.”

“Regrettably, we also note the manifestation of a dangerous conspiracy of silence when days after the Sunday’s killing of the northerners without any provocation, the story has not been told by any of the national print and broadcast media despite wide coverage by the social media with graphic photos of the mayhem and condemnation by security operatives, groups and individuals.

“We have watched and studied these events carefully and with considerable restraint and maturity, to the point of condoning and accommodating several unreasonable and unacceptable actions that have been perpetrated against Nigerians collectively, and northerners in particular.

“The intrinsic bias of the media and the double standards, hypocrisy and cowardice of regional, traditional, cultural, political and religious leaders from both the South and the North have become more glaring when they condemned the Deborah incident in Sokoto but conspiratorially and deliberately decline comments on the murderous activities of IPOB/ESN terrorists including the slaughter of a legislator.

“We note also the deliberate attempt by the media and southern leaders to conceal the true identity of the murderous IPOB/ESN terrorists by concealing it as ‘unknown gunmen’ while in actual sense they are known.

“We are aware that the activities of the IPOB/ESN terror groups are supported morally and politically by the vast majority of the pliant Igbo elites, politicians, traditional rulers, business persons, and the larger population of this ethnic group. It is also a situation that feeds on the docility of the affrighted section of those who pose as Northern leaders today.

“The recent attacks have pushed matters to a point whereby silence has become complicity and inaction is no longer an option, making it impossible for us to remain indifferent or silent in the face of such extreme provocations.

“As the representatives of various interest groups from Northern Nigeria, the CNG today declares enough is enough. The North will no longer remain passive under such deliberate and sustained attacks on its people and interests, and will henceforth be forced to react to every provocation and unwarranted violation,” the statement said.