Iwuanyanwu: There is no war between Igbo and Yoruba

Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, chairman of the council of elders, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, says there is no fight between the Igbo and Yoruba people in the country.

Speaking in Anambra on Saturday at the event marking one year in the office of Chukwuma Soludo, governor of the state, Iwuanyanwu said those destroying Igbo properties in Lagos were “political rascals”.

“I want to let our people in Lagos know, on Wednesday, I called a meeting of the Ohanaeze council of elders worldwide and we x-rayed the events in Lagos,” he said.

“I want to tell you that people who attended are from the branches in America, Canada, Europe, London, and Nigeria. We have resolved and I want those 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. Never again!

“We are in Nigeria and we have invested in Nigeria. Our investments are so much, we are not going to take the question of people telling us to go, we are not going anywhere.

“And I want to tell those in Lagos to realise that there is no war between us and Yorubas. Yorubas are with us. There are just political rascals, and we’re 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.”

In the build-up to the governorship election in Lagos, there were reported cases of ethnic slurs in the state.

After the elections, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide called on the federal government to look into the ethnic profiling of the Igbo in Lagos state.

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.

Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos, called for unity after he was declared the winner of the election.

Sanwo–Olu said he appreciated persons who refused to be divided by “hateful and hurtful” ethnic profiling.