A conglomerate of Igbo associations across the globe, Global Igbo Alliance, GIA, has lampooned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over the arrest of the Chief Executive Officer of Innoson Group, Chief Innocent Chukwuma, describing the action as ‘unimaginably’ illegal.

Innoson-Magu

A statement jointly signed by the group’s president and secretary, Dr. Christian Duru and Mrs. Chinwe Eboh is calling for the sack of the EFCC boss, Ibrahim Magu. The statement said it was disgraceful and disappointing to note that the EFCC has not yet apologised to the industrialist after it raided and allegedly used tear-gas in the residence before arresting and detaining him.

The statement read: “Chief Chukwuma was brutally arrested in seemingly questionable circumstances by the EFCC operatives, who allegedly slapped his wife in the process. GIA continues to condemn this act of lawlessness by an agency of government and demands that the Federal Government and the EFCC apologise to Chief Chukwuma immediately.

“We also recall that about a year ago, an Igbo son, Mr. Clement Ibeto of Ibeto Cements Company was also humiliated by the EFCC. And so was another Igbo son, Mr. Ifeanyi Uba of Capital Oil and Gas was humiliated by the Department of State Services, DSS. These are Igbo sons, who have done so well as industrialists and have created employment opportunities for very many Nigerians in a country, where the government of the day struggles to create employments for her citizenry.

“It is also recallable that in September last year, the military in an operation codenamed, ‘Python Dance,’ invaded the palace of Nnamdi Kanu`s parents in Abia State, leaving many dead and missing. Mr. Nnamdi Kanu and his parents remain missing till today.

“In the early hours of January 1, this year, a UK-based Igbo journalist and publisher of Elomba.com, Mr. Daniel Eloba was allegedly arrested like a common criminal from his home in Nnewi and taken to Abuja in such a humiliating manner. He was arrested alongside his brother, while his wife, young children and aged mother watched in horror. The eloquent journalist was allegedly arrested following an “order from above” for criticizing President Buhari. The list of mistreatments against notable individuals of Igbo extraction gives no one, particularly the Igbo, any hope of safety under the current administration.

“We clearly condemned these and equally wondered why some people from a certain part of Nigeria are always treated as sacred cows, while their Igbo counterparts have always been treated with disdain and contempt. Can a palace or home of any northern emir or a credible successful wealthy northern Muslim businessman be invaded or treated with such an alarming opprobrium by any security agency without heaven breaking loose?

“Why is the treatment of their Igbo counterparts being regrettably so different? Why is the treatment of south-eastern Nigerians, particularly the Igbo, continuously being met with different anomalous rules by the current government and its security agencies, yet we are called one Nigeria?

“We maintain that it is not ordinary that the EFCC would stoop so low and involve itself in a disagreement between a businessman and a bank even when the matter is already in the court of law. We are afraid that democracy and the rule of law are constantly being eroded and eluded through a type of government that tends to enslave a section of its country and uses or encourages her security agencies to silence, oppress and intimidate or even kill her citizens, who have different or opposing viewpoints. Such government should not only be voted out of office, but its officers should not be allowed to get away with such impunity.

“We hereby demand that the Federal Government sack the acting chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu and set up a neutral body to probe all the activities of the EFCC since the inception of this current government. We demand that the EFCC operative that physically assaulted Chief Chukwuma’s wife be charged to court and prosecuted accordingly. We also demand that the Federal Government and EFCC must immediately tender a public apology to the Innoson boss for such public embarrassment and horror that he and his family were subjected to by the anti-graft agency.”