The Igbo for Nigeria Movement,
INM, has faulted the reports in some quarters that the suspected cases of
MonkeyPox recorded in some states were caused by the Medical Outreach of
Operation Python Dance II by the Nigerian Army.
Rumour had it that the soldiers
were in Anambra to inject children with vaccines as had allegedly been done in
Bayelsa State with the hope of infecting them with the disease.
The reports created panic in the entire Igboland
as parents and guardians besieged schools to forcefully evacuate their children
and wards.
Reacting to the development, INM,
said the circulation of the rumour had portrayed Ndigbo as unthinking and
shallow-minded people.
Addressing newsmen on Tuesday on
the report, national president of INM, Mazi Ifeanyi Igwe, observed that the
fact on ground showed that the larger population of the southeast are law
abiding and have very cordial relationship with the military and all security
agencies in Nigeria, including the Nigerian Army, adding that only those with
criminal intent need to fear for their illicit activities, which the Army has
thwarted.
He said, “We want to appeal to
Ndigbo to decisively deal with the IPOB problem as it has been established that
this criminal lies emanated from the terror group. Even as the damage is
unfolding, Emma Powerful, the supposed spokesperson of IPOB continues to make
inflammatory remarks, which were sadly reported by some mainstream media that
ignored the fact that his group is a designated terror organization.
“Unfortunately, IPOB is laying
the ground works to kill and destroy more Igbo people than any security agency
could have ever done even if they had mounted a coordinated genocidal campaign
against the southeast geo-political zone. This is a concern that is backed up
by logic:
“The IPOB lies has practically
shut down schools. Emma Powerful asked teachers and pupils to stay at home
until Operation Python Dance II leaves the southeast. This is going to disrupt
education calendar in Igbo areas and this will leave our students at disadvantage
since the other parts of the country would not pause their calendar for the
southeast. Since Operation Python Dance is now poised to be an annual event are
we going to be shutting down our school every year while other regions make
progress?
“Should Monkey Pox evolve into an
epidemic that requires mass vaccination the lies and rumours that have spread
like wildfire will prevent people from accepting life saving inoculations and
treatment. This could cause casualty on a catastrophic scale. Let us be
reminded that some parts of the country only a few weeks ago have to get
vaccinated for cholera. The vaccines were shipped and conveyed by people in the
South that included Igbo yet persons of northern ethnicities that received the
vaccines did not wrongly accuse or fear the Igbo even at a time IPOB’s hate
speech was at its vilest. The lies have set up our people to die needlessly
should there be a national health emergency.
“While IPOB’s lies may serve its
immediate propaganda goal, it will create a new generation of vaccine deniers
in the long term. We only need to take a cue from the impact of the
anti-vaccines movements in the United States; they rely on the kind of rumours
being spread in Nigeria now to push their agenda but the impact of the follies
is being felt by way of resurfacing of diseases that the US had once eradicate
while children are dying needlessly. Unless something is urgently done we are
at risk of babies dying while those that survive would do so with the ravages
of diseases like polio that vaccines could have easily dealt with. We will also
bear the burden of staring afresh to roll back any eradicated disease that
resurfaces as a result.
“If our Hausa-Fulani brothers or
any other ethnic group for that matter are resolute on decimating the Igbo as
Emma Powerful is lying they will easily achieve that by tampering with our food
sources since Nigeria’s food chain is heavily interconnected. The southeast
does not produce all the meat, fish, grains and tubers it consumes and these
are items that can be tampered with or bio engineered to deliver pestilence. It
is therefore unkind to accuse others of what we are incapable of,” he added.
Igwe called on state and federal
governments to take immediate steps to stop further propagation of the lies by
getting legal interpretation on IPoB’s continuing capacity to issue statements
as an already-labeled terror group.
He added, “The court order that
designated IPoB as a terror group also outlawed its activities which leaves us
at a loss of why a terrorist under the name of Emma Powerful continues to
freely operate with the group’s name without being arrested. He should be
immediately arrested.”
had this kind of reasonable statement been on for long, ipob wudnt have leas igbo youths astray
ReplyDeleteArmy cannot be doing vaccination just after killing people in the same area and people would not be suspicious
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