Insecurity: Igbo women sue for peace, ceasefire

IN VIEW of the incessant killings and the worsening insecurity situations in the land, a group of elderly Igbo women have called for calm, cease-fire and lasting peace, both in the south eastern region and in Nigeria at large.

  Led by Chief Mrs Chika Ibeneme, the group, known as Igbo Women Elders Council, made the appeal on Tuesday, while hosting newsmen to a press conference in Awka.

  Speaking at the event, the Founder, Centre for Psychic and Healing Administration, Flora Ifeanyichukwu Ilonzo acknowledged that the killings and insecurity which were once only rampant in the northern region had now regrettably escalated across regions, even into the South-east and Anambra State.

 Revealing that she earlier saw and started warning and raising alarms against the worsening security situation and its attendant dooms and consequences;  Dr. Ilonzo went further to highlight her past and present efforts and interventions in several security related issues in the south eastern region and beyond.

  Speaking further, Dr. Ilonzo partially attributed the current worsened security situation in the country to the aftermath of the last year #EndSARS protest, which saw the unjust and undeserved continuous detention and suffering of some of the hapless protesters in prisons across the country.

  These, she revealed, did not only trigger the anger of God upon the country, but also caused the incessant invasions, bombing and destruction of prisons and police stations across the country, one of the aims of which is to set the prisoners free from detention.

  Ilonzo warns that impending doom and security challenges worse than the present situation are looming and fast approaching, if nothing is done at this time to curtail the situation. Hence, she called on the stakeholders and government at all levels to rightly act fast, even as she appealed to the angered parties and groups to sheath their swords and embrace peace, to avoid more bloodshed and destructions in the country.

  On her own part, the leader of the group, Chika Ibeneme explained that they were not only out to condemn or bemoan the security situation in the country, but to also intervene and proffer lasting solutions to the situation, as they could no longer continue to watch, while things deteriorate.

  Mrs Ibeneme further condemned the alleged unlawful and vicious activities of some Fulani herders in the south-eastern region, which, according to her, include raping (and sometimes murdering) of women and girls, open grazing, farmland destruction, incessant attacks and killings of Igbos among others; and called on the federal government and the South-east governors to rise up and do the needful, as such vicious activities of the herders and inactions of the government are equally obviously contributory to the worsening security situation in the region.

  Chief Ibeneme, who noted that northern governors and Islamic clerics are meeting and dialoguing with relevant groups in the North, wonders why South-eastern governors would not do same. She thus advised them (the South-east governors) to enter into credible negotiations with the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and other relevant Igbo youth groups in the region on insecurity, as a way of curtailing the situation.