Insecurity: Igbo ready to defend themselves –Iwuanyanwu
Geoffrey Anyanwu, Enugu
Elder statesman, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu has warned that any attempt to murder Igbo in any part of the country in any guise would spark war.
Iwuanyanwu, advised President Muhammadu Buhari to save Nigeria from an impending doom by restructuring the country and approving the establishment of state police.
The ex-Biafran army officer who dismissed the insinuation that Biafra lost the civil war, said the war instead ended through an arranged settlement by leaders on both sides with a declaration of “No victor, no vanquished.”
As one of those who created the Biafran killer machine, Ogbunigwe, Iwuanyanwu said Biafra never surrendered in the war, explaining that all what Gen. Philip Effiong demanded for the settlement of the crisis were obeyed by the then Head of State; Gen. Yakubu Gowon.
Speaking at a function on the future of the Igbo in Nigeria, Iwuanyanwu warned that the calm disposition of Igbo should not be taken for cowardice: “We are telling Nigerians we are ready, we are ready if they don’t restructure this country; this country must be restructured. If they think anybody will come and slaughter our people, any day they try it, they will see war, more than the one that had been there before. Let them realise this; the truth is glaring for everyone to see, our people have a saying that you don’t touch the tail of a lion whether it’s alive or dead.
“If I am Mr. President, what I will do today to stem this trouble is to restructure; two, approve the State Police, let every state have its own police, IG is talking of vigilante, vigilante should be local government police, why will police in local government be taking orders from Abuja.
“It was Gen. Effiong who saved the situation; we said we are not surrendering because we didn’t want our forebears to hear that we lost a war. So, eventually, Effiong came and told us that we did not lose; it is settlement arranged by Zik, Gowon, Ojukwu and that there is no victor, no vanquished.
And we said, if it is so, put it in dailies, foreign news and radio, they did, no victor, no vanquished.
“They didn’t defeat us, people who go about and say Biafra lost the war, Biafra didn’t lose the war. He told us that number two; the three Rs, Reconciliation, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation.
Then he said, this concerned the officers, that nobody, none of us will be tried even those us who were involved in the creation of Ogbunigwe, like myself, that we are not going to be tried by anybody.
“He told us also that all those who fought the war will be absolved, all civil servants, everything he told us Gowon obeyed it. So, in effect, I want the younger ones to know that the war ended on settlement.”
– The Sun
