(1). The attention of the Odinala Cultural Heritage Foundation otherwise known as OCHIE Igbo has been drawn to the unwholesome, hateful, ethnic profiling and prejudice directed to the people of the Southeastern States of Nigeria by the Department of State Security Services in its Tweets via its verified official Tweeter handle (Department of State Services (DSS) @OfficialDSSNG) on July 18, 2023 by 12:50PM.
(2). We at OCHIE Igbo are deeply concerned that the Tweet from the DSS was done less than 24 hours after security agencies intercepted of heavy military armament and ammunition heading to the Southeast, both in Lagos and Idiroko border.
(3). In the said tweets, the Department of State Security Service which by intelligence structure and constitutional responsibility is supposed to guard against internal conflict, promote harmony, unity and preserve the Nigerian State as an agency of the government went so slow to incite hateful and ethnic profiling statements against the people of the zone as follows;
‘Charge and bail, overzealous uninformed IPOB/ESN lawyer Maxwell Okpara mobilizes other like-minded lawyers against DGSS. Futile Efforts. Well, Nigerians, beware! This is in bad faith. Transferred aggression.’
The Service went on to allege;
‘A Biafran Republic agitator and Outlawed. IPOB counsel defending the suspended CBN Governor. Is IPOB defending one of theirs????
What a contradiction…….hmmm…what’s the connection? Is someone telling us something? May Maxwell be properly educated on points of law, please.’
(4). In a country that is already inflamed by poor governance, acute corruption that has spiked unemployment rate to an all-time high with over 133 million of the citizens in multidimensional poverty and as well as ravaged by insecurity, a state funded security organization whose primary duty is to gather sensitive security information and processed it into actionable intelligence and deploy same towards the protection of lives and properties of Nigerians instead, abdicated its statutory responsibility to do the opposite which is tantamount to reinventing the 1994 genocide that killed over a million people in Rwanda against the people of the Southeast.
(5). We at OCHIE Igbo are occupied with the task to engineer the Rebirth of a progressive 21st century community across the Southeast zone through partnership with various government institutions and private establishments interested in the development of the entire region.
(6). However, the Tweet from the DSS handlers strayed from common sense and there is every reason call them to order and remind them the State Security Service is a creation of the law and not a law unto itself. Hence, it is absurd and antithetical for an agency that is funded with tax payers’ money to constitute a nuisance by profiling a Region, because of a matter that is before a Court.
(7) Our response is propelled by the fact that the ethnic profiling targets innocent, decent, hapless and harmless indigenes of the Southeast; makes it necessary for us to respond to the unprofessional and ethnic stereotyping against Ndi Igbo.
(8). We wish to caution the DSS that not every man or woman from the East is an IPOB member. In the same vein, not every Fulani man is a terrorist and vice versa. It is lazy, lousy and unintelligent to label people so easily.
(9). We recall that in the just concluded general election, Igbo people in different cities, especially in Lagos State were targeted and attacked by agents allegedly sponsored by the ruling party over a statement that “Lagos is no-man land” which has been perennially generated by political actors to drive down their hate against Igbo in Lagos State. During the governorship election in Lagos State, MC Oluomo threatened Igbo and carried out the threat and none of the actors to the assault on Igbo in Lagos was either arrested or prosecuted till date.
(10). Asari Dokubo visited President Tinubu and after the visit he threatened the entire Igbo people while brandishing AK47 gun publicly but was never arrested nor questioned by either the DSS nor any other security agencies. It is this annoying and provocative double standard in the operational modalities of the security agencies that has reduced Nigeria almost into a jungle.
(11). Despite the condemnation that followed the DSS hateful and ethnic profiling tweets against the entire Southeast region by Nigerians, the loud silence and grandstanding of the DSS to retract the said hateful tweets is worrisome and suggests a sinister plan by the government of the day to sustain the destabilization of the entire Southeast region as we have seen recently.
(12). Consequently, one would have expected the government of President Bola Tinubu to speak up and caution the DSS for their reckless utterance which is an indictment on the Tinubu administration; because that it is only way for the Tinubu’s administration to exonerate itself that Ndi Igbo are not being targeted or profiled.
(13). Similarly, it is incumbent on this administration to take convincing steps to stop this targeted attack on a particular region of the country, because if the government is not in support of this ethnic profiling, steps would have been taken to sanction these elements trying to inflame the country with ethnic violence capable of destabilizing the entire country.
(14). Under this atmosphere of unwarranted attacks on Ndi Igbo, we wish to state our total rejection of any attempt to send military men into the Southeast for any operation, as this would simply mean unleashing mayhem on innocent and hapless citizens of the Southeast.
(15). The DSS as a refined Intelligence Agency owe Ndi Igbo an apology, not because of anything, but to reinvent and restore our confidence in the Service and also reclaim their dignity.
(16). We, therefore, state that if the President is not in tacit support of this targeted violence against the peaceful people of the South East region, we demand therefore, that President Bola Tinubu should immediately sack the Director General of the Department of Secret Services (DSS) and as well as direct that all those who are bent on inflaming the country by stoking and inciting ethnic violence and hatred should be arrested and prosecuted as enemies of Nigeria; if the repeat of the 1994 Rwandan genocidal war is to be averted in Nigeria.
(17). Furthermore, while we call on the international community to take note of this personalities who are stoking ethnic violence and the government whose silence denotes its approval of this ethnic profiling against the people of the Southeast, we also call on all the Southeast governors to rise up to their responsibilities of protecting the interest of every Igbo person against the daily intimidation, harassment and oppression of their citizens in a country that they all belong.
We at OCHIE Igbo shall no longer sit down to watch our people treated as third class or lesser citizens in their own country.
–
Caleb Ekene Onwe, Esq.
National Publicity Secretary,
OCHIE Igbo
