By Clifford Ndujihe

IGBO leaders have described as wicked rumour that Ndigbo were responsible for the December 10, 2014, twin suicide bomb explosions that claimed several lives in Kano.

Wondering how the Igbo could have been responsible for twin suicide blasts that rocked Kantin Kwan market in Kano, they said “the anti – Igbo rumour” was deliberately spread by religious leaders and local politicians to prepare grounds for the killing of Igbo after the February 14, 2015 presidential elections.

in a statement by Evangelist Elliot Uko, deputy secretary of the Igbo Leaders of Thought, ILT, and founder of the Igbo Youth Movement, IYM, “but for the confessions of 13 year old Zarau Babangida who told the whole world how they arrived Kano from Bauchi on the suicide mission, the weavers and orchestrators of such wicked rumour would have set the stage for yet another ethnic pogrom, probably immediately after the February 14 presidential elections, depending on who wins.

Said Uko, who is also the leader of South-East Self Determination Coalition, SESDC:  “We note with sadness that those who plot ethnic cleansing against Ndigbo have graduated to the level of deliberately spreading wicked but unfounded rumours, just to indict and blackmail Ndigbo in order to incite the indigenous population against Ndigbo. This heartless plot coming six weeks to the presidential elections gets us deeply worried. Had 13 year old Zarau Babangida blown up herself as well on December 10 there would be no one to tell the world the truth and the anti-Igbo rumour would have grown stronger, preparing the stage for mass killing of Ndigbo if the result of the February 14 presidential election flows a certain direction.

“The intelligence and all security agencies cannot claim to be unaware of the devilish intentions of the originators of the deadly rumour. There is no indication or proof that those behind the wicked plot have given up after the confession of 13-year-old Zarau Babangida. The huge desire to visit mayhem on Ndigbo burns in the veins of certain people, who incidentally claim to be champions of one Nigeria.

“We hereby conclude by declaring that we know that the purveyors of the evil plans are still plotting on how to draw blood come February 14, 2015, should the result of the elections not favour them. We hereby alert the world that much as we believe in one Nigeria, we will not accept continued participation in a Nigeria project where certain people announce results of elections in their hearts several weeks to the election proper and are only too willing to apply the strategy of riots and bloodshed in order to achieve regime change. We affirm that this time around, Ndigbo will not allow Igbo lives to be deliberately destroyed once again on the altar of one Nigeria.”