Igbo women group calls for dismantling of military road blocks in Southeast …warns against hand-picking of next Ohanaeze Ndigbo

By Henrietta Ashikodi 

The Igbo Women Assembly (IWA) has called on President Bola Tinubu to order for the dismantling and withdrawal of all military checkpoints and road blocks in the Southeast even as they call on the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo to cede the presidency of the apex Igbo cultural organization to Rivers State, warning against hand-picking of any individual.

The group made their feelings known to journalists in Umuahia on Tuesday, through their President, Mrs Nneka Chimezie, after a general meeting/inauguration of the group in Umuahia, Abia State. She said the numerous road blocks have made the zone look like a war zone.

She disclosed that the checkpoints have become humiliating for pedestrians and motorists plying the highways in the region as people who use the roads are often subjected to interrogations, raising their hands while crossing the checkpoints, beatings reiterated that the region should not be subjected to this level of humiliation.

She also noted that the phrase, “unknown gun men” should not be used because, the gun-men are known, adding that they were imported to the Southeast by enemies of Ndigbo to destabilize it.

Mrs Chimezie wondered why a former militant leader, Asari Dokobu, who openly said that he was contracted by the authorities to destroy the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) in the Southeast was left to walk around as a free man while the zone is being destabilized by the so called unknown gunmen.

“This character came to a national TV to say that his group is fighting alongside the military in some part of Imo State and nobody has arrested him for questioning, also no one has even made efforts to stop the activities of his men, yet, we’re looking for the unknown gunmen.

“Are they not the unknown gunmen? Why should such a character be left to move around without questioning by the authorities? She asked, even as she used the opportunity to call for the immediate and unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of IPOB.

Speaking on Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s continued detention; Mrs Chimezie noted that the situation has worsened the security situation in the zone. She therefore solicited for the reestablishment of community and village vigilantes across the zone.

“We recall that at the beginning of the invasion of the Southeast, vigilantes in many villages and communities were disbanded as the military claimed it wanted to fight insecurity singlehandedly. Now, it has proven that it cannot do it alone as the security situation has continued to worsen.

“I advocate we go back to the community vigilantes to safeguard our places and entire southeast”, Mrs. Chimezie noted.

She said for equity and justice the president of Ohanaeze Ndigbo should be ceded to Rivers State, as she warned against handpicking of any individual by some persons to fill the vacancy on January 10, 2025.

“The current Ohanaeze Presidency should go to Igbos in Rivers State; unless they come out clearly to say that they’re not Igbo, then it should return to Abia State”, she reiterated.

Speaking on why IWA was establish, she revealed that the group was formed to promote Igbo language and culture, train Igbo children on decent behaviours as well as make them speak the Igbo language and practice the culture in addition to ensuring that women and children in Igbo land maintain a lifestyle of purity, honesty, respectability and uprightness as depicted in the culture.

In her lecture, Prof Mrs Nkechinyere Ohaike of the National Institute of Nigerian Languages, Aba (NINLAN) warned the Igbo not to allow their the Igbo language go extinct in the near future as predicted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific Cultural Organization (UNESCO) she admonished Igbo women to always teach their children their language and culture.

Prof Ohaike, who is a professor of Translation Studies in Igbo Language called for institution of scholarships for students studying the Igbo language as well as inauguration of dancing and citation competitions in the states across Igbo land. She also suggested the making of the language a compulsory subjects in primary and post primary schools in Igbo land.

Contributing, the chairman of the occasion, Professor Godwin Asomugha condemned the practice whereby parents in Igbo land prevent their children from speaking or practicing the Igbo language and culture, described such behaviour as out of order.

In her speech, Umuahia chapter of the IWA, Pastor Mrs Ijeoma Umunna and a retired Permanent Secretary in Abia State, Lady Chinedu Brown in their separate responses assured that the group will pursue with vigour the interest and welfare of women particularly Igbo women in the state. called on the women to come together and form cooperative for their own benefits.