By Chimaobi Nwaiwu

Apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has said itself, PANDEF, Afenifere and Middle-Belt Forum stayed away from the security round-table organised by former military Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar, because they were lumped together with Miyetti Allah and killer-herdsmen.

Abdulsalami Abubakar

Spokesman of the group, Chuks Ibegbu, in a release, said: “We are not against General Abubakar’s move, but proper things should be done properly. Apex socio-cultural groups in the country should not be expected to be in the same pedestal with an association of cattle breeders.

“Miyetti Allah should have a roundtable with fishermen, farmers, goat breeders, poultry farmers and artisans, who are in same category with them.”

He also lamented religious conflicts and extremism in Nigeria, warning the countries trying to destabilise Nigeria through religion, to desist from such act in their own interest, noting, “whether Arabic, European, Asian or even traditional religionists, we cannot compromise the secularity of Nigeria.

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“Where one man’s rights end, another man’s own begins, and nobody knows it all in matters of religion. I have always said it that one of our greatest problems is pastors and imams with their own subjective views of religion.”

… as Mbazulike  backs boycott

Meanwhile, First Republic Aviation Minister and the surviving member of Zikist Movement, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, has expressed support for the action taken by the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Afenifere, PANDEF and Middle-Belt group for boycotting the Minna summit hosted by Abubakar, saying it was an insult to invite these groups to sit in a meeting with Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, a private business group.

Amaechi, who spoke with Vanguard in his Ukpor, Nnewi South Local Government Area, Anambra State country home, said it would have been a shameful thing to see these group made up of eminent Nigerians sit to discuss with Miyetti Allah, whose members are fingered in the many atrocities going across the country.

His words: “Why should anyone call a meeting asking Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Afenifere and PANDEF to sit together in a meeting with such group that has regards only for cows, while human beings mean nothing to them?

“MACBAN will be invited to a meeting with the leaders of the Nigerian ethnic groups, while the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, that is non-violent will be branded a terrorist organisation whose members must be arrested, jailed and killed.

“Of course, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Afenifere and PANDEF are the only nationalist organisation that speak for the people and should not be  belittled   in attending a meeting with a killer-group like MACBAN.”

VANGUARD