₦airaland Forum

plaindealer:
Seriously, do you really have to be the president to speak and condemn terrorists and terrorist acts in your own community?

So you need presidential powers to do that?

The brand of deception, cowardice, tribalism and intentional bigotry in that part of Nigeria is out of this world.

She is not going to come down to you peoples level, those who only use insecurity for games. Those who are blind to insecurity all over Nigeria except the South East. Oby Ezekwesili has condemned insecurity in all parts of Nigeria several times on Twitter. She isnt you guys who who make insecurity a South East affair

Strafudeen:
Let me just drop this here.

He has overstepped his bounds.

His nairaland minions should better concentrate on protecting him .

Dude was once a loyal soldier, but the power game has gotten to him

If he is apprehended, the next person ti replace him msy declare 1 month sit at home

As I expected, Yorubas ran away from this thread

2002 Report by Human Rights Watch

The OPC has been responsible for numerous acts of violence and its members have killed or injured hundreds of people. While many of their most serious attacks were directed against Hausa, or people suspected to be northerners, their victims have also included Igbo, Ijaw and people from other ethnic groups. There have even been cases where they have attacked Yoruba, both civilians and policemen. Most of their victims have been men.

Numerous eye-witness testimonies gathered by Human Rights Watch confirmed that contrary to their leaders' denials, the OPC have used a variety of weapons, including fire-arms, machetes, cutlasses, knives and daggers, which they are often seen carrying openly. There have also been several cases where they have poured acid on their victims. Frequently they set fire to the corpses of those they had killed, sometimes after mutilating them. It has been difficult to confirm the sources of the weapons used by the OPC. Small arms proliferate in Nigeria and it is easy to purchase guns and other weapons. In addition, the OPC have sometimes seized weapons belonging to the police or to suspected criminals that they have apprehended during their vigilante activities.

In the cases documented below, the victims and witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch confirmed that the perpetrators were specifically OPC members, as opposed to other Yoruba. They had been able to identify them in a variety of ways

Sagamu

In mid July 1999, there was a major clash between Hausa and Yoruba in Sagamu, Ogun State. Scores of people were killed. The violence began following an argument over customs observed during the Oro festival, an annual Yoruba event which had not been disrupted by any disputes either before or since 1999. Yoruba and Hausa had agreed to respect a traditional night-time curfew usually observed during the festival. However, according to local residents, a fight erupted between the Yoruba and the Hausa after a Hausa woman was killed by a group of Yoruba because she had broken the curfew. The fighting escalated and the OPC intervened to support the Yoruba. Both sides were armed. At least sixty-eight Hausa were killed, including three boys between the ages of ten and fifteen; some were killed with guns, but the majority were killed with cutlasses. A number of Yoruba were also killed, including one of the Oro leaders. Some people were burnt inside their house

Ketu / Mile 12 Market

On November 25 and 26, 1999, scores of people were killed when the OPC clashed with traders in Ketu / Mile 12 market in Lagos. The exact number of victims has not been confirmed, but is estimated to be more than one hundred. A senior police official who was at the scene said he saw an estimated two hundred bodies, but that others had already been buried in mass graves. The fighting is thought to have been caused by jealousy on the part of Yoruba about the perceived dominance of the market by Hausa traders


Alaba Market

In mid July 2000, a private dispute between a landlord and a tenant escalated out of control and several people were killed in the large Alaba electronics market in Lagos, as OPC members clashed with Igbo traders. The incident began when a Yoruba landlord, who had lost patience with a court case to resolve a dispute with his tenant, called in the OPC to deal with the problem instead. The tenant, an Igbo trader called Ike who dealt in electronic goods in Alaba market, returned from work one day to find his landlord and a group of OPC members waiting for him. On instruction from the landlord who pointed him out to the OPC, the OPC members attacked him, accusing him of being a criminal. Despite his denials, they beat him into a coma, allegedly in the presence of the landlord who did not respond to his pleas for help, even when the OPC set him on fire; he later died from his injuries.

Some of the victim's neighbors, wanting to avenge Ike's death, set fire to the landlord's building. The market traders, the majority of whom are Igbo, also mobilized to protest the death of their colleague. According to one of the traders' representatives, when they went to complain to the Baale [local Yoruba leader], OPC members were assembled there and attacked them. Several traders were injured. The traders ran back to the market and tension escalated. The OPC members apparently sought reinforcements and within a short time had invaded parts of the market. They smashed many of the buses owned by the Igbos and barricaded the roads. The traders decided to fight back after they discovered the body of another Igbo man who had been macheted to death by the OPC at a nearby petrol station; he was apparently found dead, clutching a Bible. As the traders tried to defend themselves, and some of them took up arms, the OPC extended the attack to other Igbo residents in the area. The police, who were called to the scene by the chairman of the electronics market association, were initially unable to stop the violence and had to send for reinforcements. Eventually, the paramilitary mobile police brought the situation under 

Ajegunle

There were two waves of clashes in Ajegunle, an area of Lagos. The first occurred in around September-October 1999, when Yoruba clashed with Ijaw, in what was seen as the aftermath of earlier, violent confrontations between Ijaw and Ilaje (a sub-group of the Yoruba) in Ondo State. Human Rights Watch did not carry out an in-depth investigation into these clashes, but spoke to some local residents of Ajegunle, who said that more than forty people were killed, most of them men. The victims included both Ijaw and Yoruba. Some were killed with machetes, others were burnt, others were shot dead. The report of the tribunal of inquiry set up by the state government into civil disturbances in Lagos State (see Section VII, 2 below) stated that the fighting did not appear to involve the entire Yoruba community in the area, but was more specifically "fighting between OPC members and Ijaw boys."


Idi-Araba

One of the more recent incidents of ethnic violence involving the OPC took place in Idi-Araba and surrounding areas in Mushin, Lagos, on February 2 to 4, 2002. Clashes between Hausa and Yoruba claimed more than seventy lives. Human Rights Watch spoke to many residents of the area and eye-witnesses of the violence, including members of the Hausa and Yoruba communities, and people from other ethnic groups who found themselves trapped by the violence. Most of them confirmed that OPC members had participated in the violence; however, Human Rights Watch has not been able to ascertain whether the violence was planned in advance by the OPC, or whether OPC members or supporters joined in to support the Yoruba once the fighting between Yoruba and Hausa had already started. A journalist who covered the crisis told Human Rights Watch: "The OPC galvanized people. They just provided the leadership and the others followed. The OPC was like a vanguard. It started off with a minor disagreement which escalated into an ethnic conflict. Many of the people involved didn't even know what had sparked it off until later."

The incident which apparently sparked off the fighting on February 2 was an argument which developed after a Hausa man defecated in an area not intended as public toilet, close to where the OPC was holding a meeting. Some Yoruba (who may or may not have been OPC members) challenged the man and asked him to pay for use of the area as a toilet. The man refused and a fight ensued. He reported the problem to his community. A larger group of Hausa then returned with him to the scene and a fight broke out between them and the Yoruba. According to the leader of the local Hausa community, the OPC then came back in a big group, armed with guns, and started fighting the Hausa, who were also armed. The situation escalated and the fighting lasted for two days.

According to residents of the area, the police did not have any visible presence until the evening of the second day. There were reports that several people were then shot dead by the police. Eventually, the military were also sent in to quell the violence and it was they, and not the police, who finally restored order.45 By that time, scores of people had been killed, both Hausa and Yoruba; more than a hundred others had been seriously injured; hundreds of houses and public buildings had been burnt to the ground. Most of the victims were adult men, but there were also several teenagers among them, and several women. The majority of deaths and injuries were inflicted with machetes; some people were also burnt to death. Some people were killed in their houses, others as they were trying to flee, yet others were shot at point-blank range or stabbed where they stood. The victims included both Hausa and Yoruba, but the evidence collected by Human Rights Watch indicates that a higher number of those killed were Hausa.

Other Incidents of Ethnic Violence

There have been several other incidents in which OPC members attacked people on the basis of their ethnicity, particularly Hausas, other northerners, and people suspected of being sympathetic to the Hausas. A Hausa trader in Lagos told Human Rights Watch how, during violent clashes at the Agege abattoir on the outskirts of Lagos, in late 2000, the OPC had targeted anyone suspected of being a Hausa: "They killed Alhaji Zubairu, a father of three from Kogi State. They asked him where he was from. He said Kogi. They said he was a Hausa man, and killed him. Actually he was a northerner, but not a Hausa.

Full report below


https://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/nigeria0203/nigeriaopc0203-03.htm

Arapmoi22:
It is a great sign of Weakness to think others will play a bigger role in helping you achieve what you want to.
Igbos can call a damn of Nigeria if they really want to go.
No need to beg or feel that Nigeria must be ready to let them go. No, Nigeria won't.

If Igbos know they are strong enough to pursue it, go for it.
If not, Igbos can continue with the on-going self-destruct.

Then that means Nigeria is no more than a prison holding people against their will. There can nevdr peace in such situation

If Igbos want to go then let them go, abi one Nigeria na by force?

Only a fool would support such a vessel being destroyed when it could be confiscated and used for something else

Have the Navy got enough ships?

Africans only know how to destroy, but not to build

chiagozien:
Ronu people where are you.

They are waiting for what Simon Ekpa will say next

The problem is sit at home

No fewer than 555 Nigerians have been killed and 267 kidnapped across the country between when President Bola Tinubu assumed office on May 29 and July 3.

These include attacks by bandits, Boko Haram insurgents, gunmen and others.

In a report by Global Rights, titled ‘Mass atrocities in Nigeria from 2019 to July 2023’, it noted that under the Tinubu administration, the North-Central geopolitical zone ravaged by banditry had been the most impacted with 312 deaths recorded in 35 days under review.

The North-West recorded 123 deaths, followed by the South-East where 66 residents were killed; 38 deaths were recorded in the North-East; in the South-South region, 11 persons were killed while at least five persons were murdered in the South-West.

An analysis of the trend of killings done by our correspondent showed that regions ravaged by bandits recorded more deaths than other regions. The North-West and North-Central had a total of 435 deaths.

The Programme Manager, Global Rights, Edosa Oviawe, said struggle for power and poverty were part of the factors fuelling mass atrocities in the country.

He stated, “Ethnic and religious divisions; political interests and power struggles; 20 million out-of-school children; 130 million multidimensionally poor; 90 million absolutely poor; 33 per cent unemployment rate and over 50 per cent youth unemployment among others are drivers of mass atrocities in Nigeria



A security consultant, Group Captain Sadique Shehu (retd), said the spike in non-state actors’ activities when a new government and service chiefs assumed office was not new in the country.

He called on the service chiefs to quickly map out their plans to address the situation.

Shehu, who is a former spokesperson for the Nigerian Airforce, stated, “Usually, when there is an exchange of batons either at the political level or with service chiefs, during the transition period, there is usually a lull. However, you would observe a spike in lawbreakers’ activities when the new service chiefs or political head is trying to find their footing. This has been the trend in the country. What should be done is for security chiefs to quickly draw out their plans.

“There is no doubt the former president (Muhammadu Buhari) was unable to rid the country of insecurity, although there was an improvement in the North-East. This means Tinubu is inheriting a big challenge, especially with banditry.”

He urged Tinubu to ensure he appointed a competent hand as the Minister of Defence, adding that this was an albatross of the last administration.

Shehu added, “I will urge the President to do proper supervision of the security agencies, which if I must be sincere, did not happen under Buhari. Yes, he spent more on security but did he put his eyes on it? He gave out money but did not follow the money. I will also advise him (Tinubu) to appoint a capable person as Minister of Defence. The two ministers under Buhari were powerless.”

https://punchng.com/555-nigerians-killed-in-one-month-report/

optionalY09:
I will send you my picture when i was there last year.

Post it on this thread

Igbos are adventurous, they can go anywhere. Two wealthy Igbo men broke records when they ventured to ends of the earth, one went to the North Pole, while the other visited the South Pole. To go to either Pole is very expensive, very hazardous and very dangerous. Many people have died trying to reach the North or South Pole where average temperature is - 50 centigrade

Chinedu 'Ned' Nwoko:

Popularly known as Ned Nwoko, he is a billionaire international Lawyer, property tycoon and businessman. He hails from Idumuje-Ugboko in Delta State and is also the serving Senator for Delta North. In 2020, Ned Nwoko became the first black African to reach the South Pole.

Ogbonnaya 'OG' Amazu:

Popularky known as 'OG', is a billionaire oil mogul and CEO of AMAZOIL, is an indigene of Nnewi in Anambra State. In 2015, he took his wife and two children to the North pole and broke record as the first family to ever reach the place

Have you heard of Cudjo Lewis? He was the last surviving slave of the "Clotilda", the last slave ship to leave Africa for the Americas after slavery was abolished. He was also a Yoruba man. His story is Below


Cudjo Lewis was born Oluale Kossola in the modern West African country of Benin to Oluale and his second wife Fondlolu. He was the second of four children and had 12 stepsiblings. He was a member of the Yoruba people, more specifically the Isha (a Yoruba sub-group), whose traditional home is in the Banté region of eastern Benin. Kossola was born into a modest family, but his grandfather was an officer of the town’s king. Kossola and his siblings had a happy and active childhood. At 14, he began training as a soldier and learned how to track, hunt, camp, shoot arrows, throw spears, and defend his town, which was surrounded by four tall walls. The teenager was also inducted into oro, a secret Yoruba male society whose role is to police and control society. At age 19, Kossola fell in love with a young girl he saw at the market, and at his father’s urging underwent initiation that enabled young men and women to get married. In April 1860, in the midst of Kossola’s training, Ghezo, the King of Dahomey, and his army attacked the town, killed the king and many of the people, and took the rest of the townspeople prisoner.


Kossola and his companions were marched to Abomey, Dahomey’s capital, then on to Ouidah on the coast, where they were held for three weeks in a slave pen known as a barracoon (a prison where captives were held before being sent across the Atlantic). Then he and 109 others from various regions of Benin and Nigeria boarded the slave ship Clotilda, captained by Mobile ship builder William Foster and embarked on the journey across the Atlantic Ocean, known during the slave trade as the Middle Passage. During his 45 days on the ship, Kossola suffered from terrible thirst and the humiliation of having been forced on board naked.

In Mobile, he was enslaved by James Meaher, a wealthy ship captain and brother of Timothy Meaher, the man who had organized the expedition. James Meaher was unable to pronounce Kossola’s name, so the young man told his new owner to call him Cudjo, a name given by the Fon and Ewe peoples of West Africa to boys who are born on Monday. During his five years of enslavement, the young man worked on a steamship and lived with his shipmates under Meaher’s house, which was built high above the ground.

In 1865, with general emancipation, Cujdo regained his freedom and took the name Lewis. He married Abile, a young woman who also had been on the Clotilda. Like their companions, the couple’s objective was to return home, but when they failed to raise enough money for the trip, they decided to stay in Alabama and create a town of their own. Because Timothy Meaher had been responsible for their ordeal, they decided to ask him for reparations in the form of free land. Cudjo was chosen as the spokesman. Meaher refused their demand, and they purchased land from him and others and established African Town on a hill north of Mobile. Cudjo worked as a shingle maker but after being injured in a train accident in 1902—for which he sued the railroad company—he became African Town’s church sexton.

He and his wife had five sons and one daughter. To mark their attachment to their culture, they gave American and Yoruba names to four of them and Yoruba names only to two. Sadly, all of the children died young: Celia/Ebeossi died of sickness at 15, Young Cudjo was killed by a deputy sheriff, David/Adeniah was hit by a train, Pollee Dahoo disappeared and was probably killed, and James/Ahnonotoe and Aleck/Iyadjemi died after short illnesses. Abile passed away in 1908, just one month before Aleck died. Cudjo again suffered the loss of his family.


Financial hardship forced Cudjo to sell several plots of land. By the early 1920s, all his companions from the Clotilda had passed away, leaving him as the only survivor. During the last years of his life, he achieved some fame when writers and journalists interviewed him and made his story known to the public. Alabama-born author Zora Neale Hurston filmed him, and he is thus the only known African deported through the slave trade whose moving image exists. Cudjo Lewis died of age-related illness on July 26, 1935, at about 94. Although he had always wanted to go back home, he was buried among his family in the Africans’ cemetery that opened in 1876. Today, a tall white monument marks his grave. Some of his descendants still live in Mobile. Two women, Sally “Redoshi” Smith and Matilda McCrear, were the last surviving members of the group, living until 1937 and 1940, respectively.

Idara Gold is a young girl who hails from Mbiafun Nkwono, on the outskirts of Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State. She is a keen supporter of the Biafran movement. She shot into prominence in 2021 when she was arrested by the DSS because she celebrated her 20th birthday by posting pictures of her self on Facebook wearing a Biafran dress.

She spent 18 months in various DSS detention centres from Enugu to Abuja to Niger State, without charge, before securing bail recently. On her release, Idara Gold opened a new Facebook page called 'Gold Biafra' and has started a campaign for people held in DSS custody for months, even years, without charge.

She started by highlighting the case of husband and wife, Mr and Mrs Ifedi, who she says were arrested by DSS in 2021, and have been kept in Wawa Barracks, Niger State without charge to this day

The constitution of Nigeria says that the authorities must charge a suspect to court no later than 3 days after arrest

Christistruth02:
The British Governor General of Nigeria once Stated that of the 11 biggest Towns in Nigeria 10 were in Yorubaland

Kano was the only exception!

And when you ask Yorubas where they developed that is not capital area, all they have is Sango ota? A place that cannot be compared with Nnewi

When a place assumes a capital area status, it attracts more governmental and private sector investment that triggers increased immigration, commerce and other ancillary activities that makes it develop at a faster pace than other areas. Sometimes an area may be developing at a faster pace than others, but gets a boost after getting capital area status. But sometimes, an area might develop at a fast pace without capital status, without increased government help, but by the sheer determination of the people of the area

North

Abuja: Federal Capital Territory

Kano: Capital of Kano State

Kaduna: Capital of Kaduna State

South West

Lagos: Former Federal Capital Territory

Ibadan: Former capital of the Western Region

Abeokuta: Capital of Ogun State

South East

Enugu: Former capital of the Eastern Region

Owerri: Capital of Imo state

Awka: Capital of Anambra State

But the South East develops these areas

Onitsha: Never was capital of anywhere, largest market in West Africa and more developed than many state capitals in Nigeria

Nnewi: Never was capital of anywhere, centre of the auto industry in Nigeria and developed far beyond the village it was before the war

Aba: Never was capital of anywhere but is undisputed capital of Artisanship in Nigeria and major commercial area

So the question for the North and South Westerners is this, where is that place you developed in your area with your ingenuity that isnt capital area status?

Where did you develop or build up without needing it to be capital of anywhere, or government investment?

Idara Gold, the young girl from Akwa Ibom and Biafran supporter, who was arrested by DSS and spent almost 2 years in detention just because she celebrated her birthday in Biafran attire

Idara Gold has since been granted bail, and in an apparent act of defiance to the DSS and authorities, created a new Facebook page called Gold Biafra, and reposted the same picture that made DSS arrest her.

She also told her followers that her old Facebook account had been compromised while she was in detention and she would no longer be using it.

Tough girl

Biafrans resident in the city of Malaga, Spain, took to streets and the central square of the city on 30th May to commemorate Biafran day

Biafrans living in San Pedro Region, Cote D'ivoire, have commemorated 30th May, Biafra Day, by visiting San Pedro Orphanage where they dontated cash and food items as well spending time with the residents

Where in Nigeria is this?

Biafrans took to the streets of the town of Linz, Austria, yesterday to protest for the release of IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu

Kanu has been discharged by the courts but is still been held as the government appeals the decision at the Supreme court.

Okun area of Kogi State is a place inhabited by indigenous Yoruba people. Youths of the area held a rally yesterday where they demanded that not only Okun, but all Yoruba areas of Kogi State should be included in Oduduwa Republic

More pictures

A massive protest by IPOB hit the commercial city of today. Unlike the usual protest by IPOB, this particular protest was led by a large group of men wearing white track suits with the Biafran emblem embossed on it, and white face-caps to match. The main protesters followed behind the men in white. The protesters demanded the unconditional release of IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu

The protest was peaceful and without incident

President Gamal Nasser of Egypt, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Premier of the Northern Region and Major Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, Chief instructor of the Nigerian Military School, Kaduna

This was when Nasser visited Sir Ahmadu Bello in Kaduna in 1964

Shortly after the visit, Sir Ahmadu Bello would win another term as Premier and Ojukwu was promoted to Lt Colonel and posted to command the 5th battalion, Kano. The Nigerian Military School was renamed the Nigerian Defence Academy

President Nasser died in 1970 of a heart attack while still in ofice, Sir Ahmadu Bello was killed in the military coup of January 1966, and Ojukwu died of natural causes in a London hospital in 2011 aged 78

The Biafran community in Cork city, the second biggest city in Ireland, stormed the streets on March 17th to celebrate with the Irish people Irish independence day, also known as St Patrick Day

goodnessme1:
Nigeria is not one and can never be one.


It will surely go down

Definitely