Chijioke Ugwu, Abakaliki
The Association of South East Town Unions (ASETU) has petitioned Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban-kin Moon and the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, over what they called grand plot to annex Igboland by people from northern Nigeria.
ASETU said the bizarre smuggling of abled-bodied young men from the north into Igboland in spite of the nationwide ban on interstate travels was part of the orchestrated attempt by the north to further perpetuate ethnic cleansing of the Igbo, overrun them and take over their lands.
In a petition dated May 19, 2020 and signed by the National President, Chief Emeka Diwe, National Secretary, Chief Gideion Adikwuru, and Presidents of the town unions of the five South East states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo, the Igbo leaders noted that the influx of northern youths to Igbo land the zone came after years of deliberate polarization of the nation’s security council in favour of the north.
They appealed to the UN and the US Government to call on the Government and leaders of the Federal Republic of Nigeria not to take part in this evil plot against the people of the South East. They also asked them to call those behind the satanic plot to order.
Part of the petition read: This letter is to alert you that should there be any seemingly random attack in the South East and Eastern part of Nigeria, it is not all random but a carefully choreographed attack that appears to have been carefully planned over the years and in an insidious military fashion is being executed to take advantage of the confusion and weaknesses caused by the COVID-19 situation.
‘’It is not clear who the chief proponents of this agenda are but it is clear that these are important people of means in and outside the government. Building on the menace of the herdsmen that have that terrorized many in the eastern parts of the country; this additional effort joins in furthering the agenda of dispossessing people of their lands and forcing a different religion and lifestyle on them.
‘’We in the South East and Igbo land will not allow this to happen .We urge you to advise the Federal Government of Nigeria not to be a supporter of this initiative and not to acquiesce to it by omission or commission. The Government of Nigeria must identify all those that are part of this sinister plot and put an end to it immediately. If these plans are not evil in nature, why would this secret group of northerners that are masterminding this be obsessed with lands in the South East for example when out of 19 states in the north, 13 of them are larger than the combined land mass of the five South East states (29,525 sq km). These 13 states range from 29,833 sq km (Kogi state) to 76,363 sq km (Niger state) in size. Only an agenda of domination, ethnic cleansing and land grabbing can explain this interest.”