The Igbo socio-cultural organization, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, has dismissed as “a lie from the pit of hell” a media publication that “over 100 northerners were killed in the South-East last week”.
Ohanaeze, in a terse press statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Dr Alex Ogbonnia, called for the investigation of the “alarmists”, to compel them to show proof of the wild allegation.
The apex Igbo body, which said that making such bogus and untenable allegations capable of setting the country on fire, should not be treated with levity, urged security agencies to arrest those behind the false allegation and publication to substantiate their claims.
The statement made available to Vanguard read: “The attention of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has been drawn to the front page report by a newspaper on Friday, to the effect that the Coordinator of the Northern Consensus Forum, Dr Auwal Abdullahi Aliyu and others have directed commodity traders and truck drivers to shun the South-East of Nigeria over incessant killings of their members by members of the outlawed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB).
“They have declared three days warning strike due to the constant killing of the northerners in the South East.
“The most disturbing part of the report is that ‘not less than 100 northerners were murdered in the South-East within last week’.
