The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has warned that if the killings by the Fulani herdsmen across the country especially in the South-East were part of jihadism by Shehu Usman dan Fodio, in 1804, it would be an exercise in futility.
It said that such an attempt would be resisted with everything available to Ndigbo.
National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Alex Ogbonnia, stated that what had succeeded 200 years ago in form of a jihad would no longer succeed now.
Ogbonnia cautioned that if that was the reason the regime of the President Muhammadu Buhari had never condemned the atrocities his kinsmen were perpetrating in Igbo land, while using the country’s security architecture to shield them, such plan had failed.
Reacting to numerous Fulani herdsmen invasions in Igbo communities with scores killed in their sleep, the Ohanaeze spokesman regretted that on every occasion, security agencies in the region would be alerted, but they would only come after the attacks, often to stop reprisal.
“Thereafter, they will neither arrest nor prosecute the murderers. What I can tell you is that about 1804 when we had jihad in the North led by the first Sultan of Sokoto; we’re talking about 200 years now.
“So, the life of 200 years cannot be the same now. The kind of operation that succeeded 200 years ago cannot succeed now. Even if they’re contemplating jihadism, it cannot walk.”
