Ohaneze Ndigbo slams southeast governors for failing to launch security body similar to Amotekun

PAN-CULTURAL Igbo group Ohaneze Ndigbo has slammed the five governors of the southeast geo-political zone calling them sell-outs for failing to establish a regional security network similar to the Amotekun project launched in the southwest.

Last month, the six governors of the southwest geo-political zone agreed to launch a regional body called Amotekun to combat the growing menace of banditry, kidnapping and insecurity in their states. Highly popular with Nigerians who have been living with chronic insecurity, Amotekun sparked off calls for the creation of similar regional structures nationwide.

In the southeast geo-political zone, the five governors began moves to create a body that would be known as Operation Ogbunigwe, which would mirror Amotekun. However, on Wednesday, after a meeting with the inspector-general of police Mohammed Adamu in Enugu, the governors decided to shelve these plans and instead opt for the federal government's community policing programme.

Furious with the action of the governors, Chief Nduka Eya, a member of the Ime Obi, the highest decision-making organ of Ohaneze Ndigbo and its former general secretary, said the inspector-general of police was not supposed to be part of the regional summit. He added that the idea for the summit was Ohaneze’s and that the governors were included as the political leaders of the zone.

Chief Eya said: “Who summoned the security summit? Who was responsible for the governors of the Western Region coming together to announce the formation of Amotekun? Was the inspector general of police there? Why is our own always different?

“I was surprised that there was a security meeting, held behind closed doors, ahead of that summit. On Sunday, the Ime Obi, which is the highest decision-making organ of Ohaneze Ndigbo, met to discuss our common security matters but coincidentally, the southeast governors met on the same day in Enugu. I demanded to know if Ohaneze invited our governors because they should be part of Ohaneze and they said yes.

“The governors were eventually informed about our meeting and Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State replied that they had agreed to form a southeast security synergy. Then on Tuesday, two days after, a security summit was summoned and a communiqué read by the same Umahi had it that the governors had accepted community policing.”

According to Chief Eya, Ohaneze Ndigbo wanted their own security outfit and not the community police model sold to the governors by Mr Adamu. He added that the people of the southeast want a security outfit in the mould of the southwest’s Amotekun, pointing out that anything short of that would not be acceptable to a majority of the people.

At Wednesday’s South East Security Summit that held in Enugu, the five governors from the region reached the decision to adopt the federal government’s community policing model. In the southwest on the other hand, Amotekun is proceeding as an independent operation with the six state houses of assemblies passing bills making it a legal entity.