….says freedom worship, Christianity under threat
From Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha
The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has warned that the Governors and Governments of the South-East against ceding of lands to Fulani herdsmen in any disguise of land grabbing in order to please their political elites and associates in the northern parts of the country.
The group alleged that Governors of the South East were being deafened living in denial and dangerously turning the Mainland Igbo into Jihadist Violence-prone ike Benue, Plateau and Southern Kaduna.
The Chairman of Intersociety Mr. Emeka Umeagbalasi in a statement said despite the group alarm raised in March 11, 2024; available pieces of irrefutable evidence have continued to indicate grave danger signals ahead for the general security and safety of the Mainland and Outpost Igbo, their defenseless populations, territories and properties which totally and cumulatively threaten their fundamental human rights to Freedom of Religion or Belief and profession of Christianity in particular.
“It saddens our heart that when shocking and terrifying statistics are being reeled out day in day out across Nigeria and African countries by international state and non-state actor investigative and research Rights and Humanitarian bodies; raising consciousness and alarms and pointing out dangers arising from the genocidal activities of the Fulani, Shuwa, Baggara, Kanuri and Maghreb radical Islamists or jihadists in Nigeria and Africa; the Governors and Governments of the Mainland Igbo or South-East are deafeningly and dangerously lending their hands, implicitly or explicitly, in flooding and saturating the Region with locally and regionally assembled Fulani jihadists and allied others; armed with prohibited firearms and covertly accorded “above the law status” and state protection by the present and immediate past Central Governments of Nigeria and the country’s Security Forces (NSFs).
“Today, the Igbo Land civilian Governors; both elected and selected, have become sobriquet: “Chief Insecurity Officers” of their respective Anambra, Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States. It has also been observed and widely suspected that the major motive behind the Mainland Igbo Governors and Governments’ betrayal of trust and compromise of the Region’s territorial, citizens and property security and safety is rooted in forces behind their governorship selection or election and post-election court processes; requiring “loyalty of the graveyard” just to stay in power for mere maximum eight years.
“The above is to the extent that it has dangerously become a routine for an Igbo Land Governor/Government to compromise the religious, identity, property and territorial security and safety of the governed just to stay in public office by hook or crook.
“We at the intersociety had in our statement of March 11, 2024, titled: South-East Lands Too Tiny For Grab For (Fulani) “Ranching/Settlements: Enugu, Abia And Anambra Govts, Others Must Back Off; strongly accused the Governors and Governments of the affected Mainland Igbo States of secretly forcing several communities in their States into ceding their forest reserves and farmlands for veiled or disguised Fulani herders’ settlements; a very dangerous timebomb presently detonating and uprooting the indigenous Christian communities, their natives and properties in places like Benue, Plateau and Southern Kaduna.
“The most shocking and alarming of it all is that the time-bomb-prone arrangements by the Mainland Igbo Governors and other strongly suspected jihad enablers are being executed using different disguises and veiled names. It must be publicly remembered that the affected Governors and Governments particularly those of Enugu, Anambra and Abia have severally denied involvement in such dangerously security threatened exercise.
“Christianity and freedom of religion may die in Nigeria and Igbo land in 50 years.
Intersociety has checked and strongly observed that if extreme care is not taken in Nigeria particularly in the ancestral Mainland and Outpost Igbo, Freedom of Religion or Belief including right to freely and willingly profess and practice Christianity or Judaism or Traditionalism; other than radical Islamism; will die or disappear. In other words, Christianity, Jewish and Traditional Religions are most likely to disappear in Nigeria or any part thereof particularly in Mainland and Outpost Igbo in the next 50 years.
“That is to say that Christian, Jewish and Traditional religious children born and being raised today in non-Muslim held areas of the country including Mainland and Outpost Igbo may not freely and peacefully practice their religions in the next 50 years.Hypocrites and fakers have outnumbered real defenders of Christian faith in Nigeria” Umeagbalasi stated.