SUPPORTERS of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in the United States of America (USA) have complained to the American Congressional Sub-Committee on Counter-Terrorism and Intelligence that innocent Nigerians were being harassed and placed under special security checks over the Boko Haram menace.

While they deplored the activities of the sect, the party members said those being harassed in the U.S. were mostly Nigerians from the southern part of the country, who have no interest or link with the destructive group.

In a letter written to the Congress, APGA chairman in U.S., Kpajie Nnamdi Augustine Onochie and the general secretary, Okwukwe Okoudu Ibiam, they explained that the Igbo of the South-East “constitute the primary population of Nigerians living in America, who have no sympathy for the terrorist sect that derives its platform in the North”.

Onochie said these innocent Nigerians “do not merit the scrutiny over the Boko Haram sect”.

He said the party decided to make the clarifications and draw the attention of the Boko Haram owing to the recommendations of increased monitoring of the sect, including conducting search on the Nigerian community in the U.S.

While condemning the generic use of the name “Nigerians” to tar all the law-abiding ethnic groups and regions that make up the country, APGA declared that Nigeria is not a homogenous but heterogeneous entity made up of various ethnic groups including the dominant Igbo in the South-East/South-South; Yoruba in the South-West, and Hausa/Fulani in the North.
The letter, which was made available to The Guardian read in part: “We take pains and great risk to draw your attention to the continued activities of the Boko Haram sect, a terrorist group, which operates within some geographical sections of Nigeria, particularly northern Nigeria; and the special sitting of the U.S. Congressional Sub-Committee on Counter-Terrorism and Intelligence chaired by Peter Meehan on November 30, 2011, which recommended the increased monitoring of the Boko Haram sect.

“We in the APGA in USA categorically condemn the activities of Boko Haram sect. We further state that the lawless activities of this sectarian group puts all Nigerians in bad light, especially those in the U.S., who mainly come from southern Nigeria particularly South-East/South-South Nigeria”.

Onochie lamented that the continued menace of the sect and other terrorist acts put Nigeria in the Diaspora “in social quagmire and under increasing scrutiny”, adding that “majority of southern Nigerians living in the Diaspora have nothing to do with the North, northern interest or the Boko Haram sectarian group”.

According to him, at foreign airports, Nigerians are targeted for unwarranted scrutiny during flights with airlines flying between North America, Europe and Nigeria, noting that northern Nigerians are not the primary passengers on flights on the U.S. and most parts of Western Europe.