Orlu Military Bombardment: Igbo Youths Blow Hot, Tell Army To Take Fight To Bandits

The Ndigbo Youth Parliament, NYP, Saturday condemned the alleged aerial bombardment in Orlu, Imo state, saying “aside the videos from the eyewitness sent to us, we received calls of tensions and anxieties from the citizens of the communities in Orlu where the aerial bombardments took place.”

Speaker of the Parliament, Rikki Nwajiofor in a statement described the alleged military action as “a joke taken too far”.

The statement read: “How on earth can there be aerial bombardments by the military jets in a zone that is not bedevilled by terrorism nor banditry whereas the zones that have witnessed incessant kidnappings, cattle rustling, banditry and the likes, are spared of such bombardments? Is the military not aware of the recent kidnappings in Niger state and other parts of the Northern region?

Why not deploy those fighter jets to all the forests and hideouts of all these bandits and kidnappers operating freely in the North? How do we explain such an ‘irrational decision’ of the military to our teeming Youths who are already suffering from ‘a mindset that Southeast region is brazenly hated?’

“We wish to ask the Nigerian Military and the Federal government; was that aerial bombardment necessary? Was it the best way to handle the situation at hand? What impression does that create in the minds of the teeming Youths of Southeast? Does it not go a long way to connote the already “perjured conception that the Southeast is being treated as a second class zone?

“Ndigbo Youth Parliament has been on a cause of building strong relationships between the Youths of the Southeast and those of other ethnic nationalities just to uphold the “sacrosanct dictum of One Nigeria”. Unfortunately, some actions from the federal government, such as the act of the aerial bombardments, make our tasks and mission very laborious and tedious.

“There are already wounds in the hearts of majority of the Youths from the Southeast, sequel to some acts of marginalization in the past, but we are doing our best to re-orientate them and have those wounds healed as we re-instill the love for this great Nation in their hearts. Thus, any further actions that will add salt to the injury should be eschewed and totally avoided.

“There are other ways of handling issues which will ensure that situations do not get out of hands. Has Federal government tried the medium of “re-orientation of Youths from the Southeast”? Is the Federal government aware that a peace geared towards re-orientating the mindsets of majority of Southeastern Youths, can eradicate some agitations in the hearts of our Youths? It must not be via military force, all the time.

The effects of the operation python dance are yet to be effaced, further application of military force in the Southeast will create more tensions and unrest for this great Nation. We are already “sitting on keg of gunpowder”, any further application of force can trigger an unexpected explosion.

“On a more serious and disheartening note, Ndigbo Youth Parliament is highly disappointed in all the governors of the Southeastern states and in majority of our political elites”. If not for the laxity of our governors, Nnamdi Kanu would not have taken laws into his hands by creating and establishing Eastern Security Net

“There is no gainsaying in the fact that we need a security outfit, not owned and controlled by the Federal government, in the southeastern states just like the Amotekun of the Southwest and the Hisbah corps of some Northern states. Unfortunately, our governors are playing to the gallery, trying to curry favour from some quarters outside the southeast, for their selfish ambition of 2023 while allowing their states to remain porous and their citizens hindered from their farmlands by the herdsmen. What a selfishness of the highest order!

“It is only a tree that is told that it will be cut down and it still remained at the same spot”, says Igbo aphorism. Every being has a defensive instinct and natural defensive mechanism. The scorpions do not sting until one gets to touch them or they get in touch with what they perceive as “an enemy”, same happens with the snakes.

“If these lower animals can activate their defensive mechanisms, then human beings cannot be faulted for doing their best to protect themselves against invaders, attackers and bloodletting forest marauders,” the statement read in part.

Vanguard