Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA has alleged that there is credible evidence of well-funded plots to engineer genocidal killings of Igbos in different parts of the country.
HURIWA, in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, alleged that the move was being funded by an unnamed presidential aspirant from the South West.
The group said the move was to stop one of the Igbo aspirants from winning the presidential candidate of any of the two leading parties- the All Progressives Congress, APC, and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2023 polls.
For this reason, HURIWA asked Igbo leaders across the country and beyond such as Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the World Council of Igbos, governors of the Igbo speaking states, appointees and political stakeholders, even religious, traditional and civil rights advocacy groups to take immediate, comprehensive, and proactive measures to stem the tides.
The rights group said those championing the anti-Igbo campaigns are already “funded by one of the leading aspirants for the Presidency who is considered influential in the South West of Nigeria.”
HURIWA accused these ethnic irredentists masquerading as politicians and religious leaders of working to generate enough hatreds that could spark off ethnic genocide against Igbos.
The group said that those it described as apostles of genocide, who, according to it, hate Igbos passionately, are already deploying their pulpits and traditional stools and their media outlets to promote anti-Igbo sentiments.
HURIWA called on Igbo leaders to report this matter to President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly to table the media published diatribes and hate speeches against the Igbos which are deliberately put out there in the media.
According to HURIWA, since the 2019 polls that Senator Oluremi Tinubu openly canvassed hate speeches directed at the Igbos residents in Lagos over her perceived fear that the large majority of Igbos may vote for PDP, the Igbo sentiment has taken a more sinister and deadly dimension.
The rights group recalled how the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrosheed Adewale Akanbi, recently declared that he can not trust any Southeasterner to be the President of Nigeria
HURIWA further recalled that Chief Raymond Dokpesi had also said the separatist activities in the South-East would jeopardise the chances of the South-East region to produce the president of Nigeria in 2023.
