The Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC), has appealed to the federal government to apply every diplomatic and peaceful approach in the issue of Biafra agitation.
The Igbo group urged the government to jettison the use of brutal force in quelling agitations of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and other pro-Biafran activists seeking an independent state.
The Igboayaka O. Igboayaka led Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC), in a statement sighted by Africa Today News, New York on Sunday, stressed that the presence of the military in Owerri has worsened the security situation in Imo State as the soldiers have turned themselves into enemies of the people.
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The group alleged that countless innocent Igbo youths were being killed in the region
OYC, however, vowed that no amount of intimidation and killings by security agents can subdue the passion and courage of Igbo youths in their quest for Biafra restoration.
The group called on all pro-Biafra groups to maintain a peaceful approach in their noble quest for secession
Parts of the OYC statement read, ‘We resolved that the military should vacate Igbo land while we engage in community-based solution, town hall meetings to look into workable means to sensitize our people on the increase of crimes in our land.
‘The governors of Igbo extraction, former governors, senators, House of Rep members, other notable Igbo politicians must rise through the media, political engagements and meetings and condemn these state crimes. If they fail within 7 days to publicly condemn these brutal killings and arrest of Igbo youths, we will count such politicians as traitors and conspirators in the killing of innocent Igbo youths.
‘As one of the means to maintain peace in Nigeria, the Council demands the release of all pro-Biafra activists in police cells and correctional centres across Nigeria and a rapid amnesty program for Eastern Security Network (ESN) the way such was given to repentant Bandits and Boko Haram insurgents.
‘The pressure and force that was mounted on Biafrans by General Yakubu Gowon led federal government in 1967 could not subdue the Igbos to drop their agitation for Biafra, therefore, any government in Nigeria thinking that arresting, imprisoning and killing Igbo youths will end the quest for Biafra should go back to the history of 1967-70 during which the Igbos advanced, pushed Nigeria beyond Middle Belt within few months before Germany, Russia and Britain came to their rescue’.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK