Apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide has called on those operating as unknown gunmen in the South-East to lay down their arms.
The appeal was made by the National President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide, Mazi Okwu Nnabuike.
He spoke in reaction to the reported capture of the famous member of the Auto Pilot, Ifeanyi Eze Okorienta, known as "Gentle De Yahoo", by the Nigerian Military.
Okwu said the arrest provides an opportunity for those behind the killing and maiming of innocent South-East indigenes to have a re-think.
According to him, “The development is another opportunity to have a retrospection on the happenings in Igbo land. For the past three years or thereabouts, a season of mayhem has been unleashed on Ndigbo, not really by outsiders but our own people.
“It started as an agitation for Biafra, but soon became an avenue to kidnap people for ransom, harvest organs, sack communities, collect levies, among other heinous crimes.
“Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has severally condemned what those people are doing; even the IPOB also disowned them severally, meaning that they are on their own, just as their name goes - Auto Pilot.
“What has worried every discerning person is how you end up killing and maiming the same people you claim to be fighting for. What an irony.”
The Ohanaeze Youth President urged those who are still in the bushes to come out and embrace peace, stressing that “Ndigbo are not known for shedding blood. There is sanctity of life in Igbo land but it has been so much desecrated.”
He, however, urged that time had come for Ndigbo to salvage whatever was left in the region.
“I urge them to free all the communities, especially in Imo and Anambra States that are still under siege.
“Enough of blood spilling; this is a time to rebuild our land,” Okwu declared.
