Touch Ihejirika, touch fire —Ohanaeze warns northern elders

Ohanaeze Ndigbo, a socio-cultural organisation of the Igbo, has warned the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) to stop threatening the former Chief of Army staff, Lieutenant-General Azubuike Ihejirika, or face the wrath of Ndigbo.

The President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo,  Anambra State chapter, Elder Chris Eluemunoh, stated this in reaction to the comment by NEF threatening to drag Ihejirika to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague for alleged extra-judicial killings.

 NEF had penultimate week in a communique signed by its spokesman, Professor Ango Abdullahi, accused Ihejirika and six others for alleged extra-judicial killings and strangulation of civilians by soldiers in Bama and Giwa Barracks in Borno State using an underground detention centre.

 But the Anambra Ohanaeze chief in an interview with newsmen in Awka, the Anambra State capital, described the threat as “an empty threat,” stressing that any attempt by anybody to touch Ihejirika would be resisted with maximum force by Ndigbo.

 He said “but if they try it, they will meet fire. We have records of atrocities perpetrated on the people of this side of the country by the northerners and we chose to keep quiet in the interest of our dear country. But let them try anything funny, then they will see Ndigbo in their true colour.”

On the stand of Ndigbo on the 2015 presidential race, Eluemunoh said, “we are not thinking of an Igbo president in 2015. Our stand is that Ndigbo will support Jonathan for a second term.