Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has faulted President Muhammadu Buhari for accusing community and religious leaders in the Southeast of not speaking forcefully against insecurity in the region.
They said the president was blaming the victims of insecurity rather than wielding his “enormous powers” to tackle the problem.
Ohaneze further accused the presidency of poisoning “undiscerning minds” by insinuating that only non-indigenes and security officials are killed by terrorists in the South East or that such killings were peculiar to the region.
On Friday night, gunmen attacked the police station in Agwa, Oguta LGA of the state, killing four police officers and setting ablaze a section of the police station, including vehicles in the yard.
In another attack that reportedly occurred on August 1, some Nigerian nationals were said to have been killed in an attack on the Orogwe community in Owerri, the Imo capital.
President Buhari on Saturday through his Special Assistant on Media, Mallam Garba Shehu, condemned the incidents, tasking the community to unmask the perpetrators.
Ohanaeze, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Dr. Chiedozie Alex Ogbonnia, frowned at the statement by the Presidency, arguing that it was nuanced against the Southeast ‘as a haven for terrorists that attack non-indigenes and law enforcement officials; implying that the insecurity persists because the leaders have not forcefully spoken.
