by Rachel Ogbu
The Lagos State government were said to have deported about 70 people to the commercial city of Onitsha yesterday.
Escorted by a police patrol van and heavily armed police men the deportees were described as a mixed range of people from those who showed signs of mental illness to those who said they had been in detention for many years before finally released and put on a one way trailer to Onitsha.
Some other reports claim they were beggars and homeless people who had being detained in Ikorodu, Lagos, for over six months for alleged wandering and other minor offences by the Lagos State Kick Against Indiscipline officials.
There were some who couldn’t even speak the native language and reports claim that it was the second time such human cargo was brought into Onitsha.
According to reports, the trailer dropped them of at the Upper Iweka flyover at about 3.20am, made a U–turn and returned to Lagos.
The Chairman of Nigeria Red Cross Society in the South-East, Peter Katchy reportedly condemned the actions by the Lagos State authorities.
“It’s very deplorable; it’s very disheartening that a state in the Federal Republic of Nigeria will bundle people, who are not even indigenes of Anambra State, and dump them under the flyover at Upper Iweka in Onitsha,” he said.
“Many of the people, we have interviewed are not indigenes of Anambra State. Some of them are from Ebonyi State; some are from Imo State among other states.
“It is an insult to Anambra State. We shall draw the attention of the governor of Anambra State to ask the reason for such an invasion of his territory.
“We will find out why Lagos State should invade Anambra State territory; and why Lagos State should dump people here and leave them helpless.
“We are here on humanitarian purposes and in response to an emergency. From what we discovered here, this is a human emergency and a human callousness.”
The Area Commander of the police at Onitsha, Benjamin Woru said the police would investigate the incident. He also said that the police would monitor the movement of the victims to ensure there would be no security breach in the commercial city of Onitsha, Vanguard reports.
The details of this Igbo deportation from Lagos State are not yet known. However, if the Lagos State government actually carried out these treasonable offense against Nigerians living in Nigeria then the Anambra state government, the Federal government, presidency, the national assemblies must take legal, executive and legislative actions respectively against the Lagos state government on behalf of these Nigerian citizens whose fundamental and citizens’ rights to live in any part of Nigeria of their choosing was grossly violated by this subversive act. This inglorious act is no different from the deportation of Jews by the Nazi; is no different from the 1966 pogrom or the ethnic cleansing directed against eastern Nigerians leading up to the Nigeria Biafra civil war. That these citizens were picked up on the streets in Lagos, detained in a vigilant prison camp where many lost their lives and then internally deported for no apparent reasons except that they appeared poor is not only criminal in nature but purely a crime against humanity and against the constitution of the Nigerian state.
Now Lagos state has become a Nazi enclave with the Igbos as the target of its newly found Nazi ideology. Lagos state government is now to Igbos what West countries are to Nigerians. In the West, a Nigeria that looks poor is not welcomed in the West. But if this Nigerian is a public official carrying huge amount of stolen public wealth he receives kingly welcome in Europe in US. With this action by Lagos State government says if you’re Igbo and looks poor you’re not welcomed to Lagos. This exactly the same discrimination that South African meted against Nigerians sometimes last year that sparked National outraged and forced the Nigerian government to respond accordingly. Lagos state government cannot differentiate or discriminate between the rich and the poor Igbos.
But by this particular single action Lagos state government have unfortunately spoken out the truth many have deliberately avoided; the truth that we are not one, the truth that one Nigeria is a hoax, a fraud artificially kept as truth by the Niger Delta oil. Every Igbo man living or operating in Lagos take note; you’re welcomed in Lagos as longs as you appeared to be doing well economically well. Every Igbo man in Lagos must now understand that his is foreigner in Lagos state and therefore must not keep all his eggs in the Lagos basket. Any Igbo in Lagos and perhaps anywhere outside the Igbo territory must think what would become of his wealth and properties in these states in the event of slightest national discord. It has happened before, the abandoned property project during the Civil war. History has and would continue to be a very important reference tool because those who disregard it surely make the same mistake time and time again.
However, there is an alternative cause of action albeit a difficult alternative that Igbos can use to confront ill treatment, discrimination and humiliations that they suffer in Nigeria. And that is to defend by any means necessary the artificial one- Nigerianism as long as the project called Nigeria continues in truth or in false continues to emphasize that we are one Nigeria. Igbo must be prepared to either effectively relocate to the East when and if it becomes necessary or they must stand their ground, defend and protect themselves by any means when and if it become necessary to do so. Every part of Nigeria is Nigeria and Igbos, rich and poor like any group has the constitutional to live,
Great men, nations are neither made from among the timid, the weakling, the peaceable, and the pacifist nor from among the awols. Rather great men and nations are made from among the fearless, the courageous and from among those who would stand their ground when ordinary men and nations takes flight. So as long as the song of one Nigeria mantra is being sang Igbos must prepare selves to defend in Lagos, Kano, and north, south, east, and west; this none melodic but empowering song of One Nigeria.
The remaining one will be deported soon,