Billionaire businessman, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, has said there is no conflict or fight between the Igbo and Yoruba people in Nigeria.
Iwuanyanwu who is the chairman of the council of elders, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, said those destroying Igbo properties in Lagos were “political rascals.”
He spoke in Anambra on Saturday at the event marking one year in the office of Chukwuma Soludo, governor of the state, Iwuanyanwu
According to Premium Times, Iwuanyanwu said: “Now, I saw the various associations coming here from Lagos. I want to let our people in Lagos to know that on Wednesday, I called a meeting of the Ohanaeze Council of Elders Worldwide and we x-rayed the events in Lagos, and I want to tell you that people attended from America, Canada, Europe, and Nigeria. So I want those who are from Lagos to go home and tell those in Lagos that we have resolved that never again can we allow anybody to take the life of any innocent Igbo person. All of us are going to fight the person. We are going to fight the person. Never again!
“We are in Nigeria and we have invested in Nigeria, and our investments are so much. We are not going to take it when people tell us to go; we are not going anywhere. And I want to tell those who are in Lagos to realise that there is no war between us and Yorubas. Yorubas are just political rascals, and we are going to handle them.
“The elders have directed the secretary general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, [Okey] Emuchay, to set up a commission of inquiry to find out things destroyed; people are going to pay.”
The Daily Crucible recalls that in the build-up to the governorship election in Lagos, there were observed cases of ethnic slurs in the state, prompting the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide to call on the federal government to look into the ethnic profiling of the Igbo in the Centre of Excellence.
In a statement, Alex Ogbonnia, national publicity secretary of the group, said there is a need to end atrocities against the Igbo in Lagos.
Ogbonnia urged the government to curb the humiliation the people have been subjected to since the 2023 general election began.
Ogbonnia described Ndigbo as “essentially republican and cosmopolitan in nature,” noting that despite the horrific hardship endured during the civil war, they have embraced Nigeria with open-mindedness and patriotism.
