They also want them to be compensated without delay and provided “decent places of abode within Lagos State.”
SERG, in a statement issued by its Coordinator General, Chief Willy Ezugwu, said the recent action of the Lagos State government “has set a bad precedent that must be immediately reversed to forestall the breakup of Nigeria along ethno-regional lines.”
The statement also expressed “concerns that the deportation of persons, originally from the South-East, raises a red flag and has set the basis for questioning the genuine intention of regional frameworks, like the Development Agenda of Western Nigeria (DAWN) recently launched by states in the Southwest.”
Similarly, a frontline businessman in Onitsha, Mr. Rommy Ezeonwuka, says Fashola got it wrong, stressing that it is an abomination to deport citizens from any territory within their country.
Ezeonwuka, who spoke to The Guardian on phone, said the National Assembly and the Presidency should speak out against the treatment, adding that the development could set off reactions that would challenge the corporate existence of the country.
He recalled that when the Igbo craved a separate country, because they were being dehumanised, marginalised and murdered, a civil war was fought to keep the nation. He wondered why the nation’s constitution should be breached by the deportation of citizens from where they prefer to live.
Ezugwu said: “the recent closure of the Ladipo auto spare parts market must also be reviewed in a different light, to see if Igbo business and people are being unfairly targeted in what could be the beginning of a pogrom.”
According to him, “the constitution clearly states that every citizen of Nigeria is entitled to move freely throughout the country and reside in any part thereof, and no citizen of Nigeria shall be expelled from the country or refused entry thereby or exit therefrom.”
Ezugwu said: “The explanation by the Lagos State government that the people it expelled chose to be so repatriated is not tenable because the shabby way in which they were returned in a cattle truck, in the dead of the night and with maximum security escort, did not portray the picture of people who willingly left Lagos State.
“It is also unfortunate that the victims were kept in the equivalent of concentration camps, prior to their expulsion, according to the accounts by some of them. Also, if they were leaving willingly, as claimed, the state should have provided them with decent means of transport to relocate within reasonable hours.”
Ezeonwuka said: “We have been trying to make Nigeria better after the civil war. It was for this kind of mistreatment that we wanted to stay on our own. We came back to Nigeria and tried to make the country fine. What abomination have we committed, this time around? The constitution says any Nigerian can live in any part of the country. Now, how can anybody say he is deporting a Nigerian outside a Nigerian territory?
“It is an abomination. The National Assembly and the Presidency must condemn this unwarranted attack on Igbo or else… Why are we one Nigeria? No Governor has the right to deport any citizen from any territory within Nigeria, unless such state is a saboteur of the country’s unity.”
Ezeonwuka, who holds the title of Ogirisi-Igbo (Defender of Igbo), noted that the Igbo in Lagos sacrificed their knowledge wealth and ingenuity to assist in developing the state, contending that deporting them is a form of apartheid. According to him, “if the persons are destitute, they could be rehabilitated.”
He rejected suggestions in some quarters that the deportation is an extension of crisis in the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, and intended to get back at Peter Obi.
He insisted that the deportation is a continuation of psychological attacks on the Igbo. “If some countries harbour refugees, why not treat those people as economic refugees and cater for them, if you think they are no more productive. After all, they were productive at some point,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment