'Ohaneze, Igbo leaders should apologize to Nigeria military'- INM

INM says the call is necessitated following their earlier acts of silence, indifference, and passive support that allowed the Indigenous People of Biafra [IPOB], to metamorphosed into a full-blown terror group.

The INM believes that the silence displayed by the Igbo leaders of thought is what has given the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, the opportunity to hijack the Igbo agitation for fairness to incite hatred across the land.

Reacting to a visit to Gombe State on a peace mission by Ohaneze’s President General, Chief John Nwodo, and other Igbo leaders, the INM expressed relief that the period when the organization and Igbo leaders played politics with what is ordinarily a nationwide quest for a better deal is over.

ALSO READ: "Biafra: 'IPOB will be worse than Boko Haram if not checked' - Coalition"

Commending the Nigerian Army for having the will to tackle IPOB as a festering sore that was on the verge of compromising the security and peace of the nation, INM posited that there is nowhere in the world where terrorists are allowed to flourish unchallenged as earlier canvassed by certain Igbo and Ohaneze leaders with vested interests.

In a statement by Mazi Igwe Ifeanyi, the National Leader of INM explained that some top members of Ohaneze and Igbo political leaders that had banked on using IPOB and Kanu to score political points, have discovered that they were as much the victims of a terror infrastructure but had become too ashamed to accept their sins and dilemma until the launch of Operation Python Dance II, which some of them still kicked against out of habit.

Mazi Ifeanyi said it is reassuring that the same people that were supporting IPOB, even when they were hostages, are today relishing the freedom procured for them through the success recorded by Operation Python Dance II, which has empowered them to again grow in courage to visit the same people that Kanu had vilified without them calling him to order.

It said in its sincere opinion, the least Ohaneze, its leader, Chief Nwodo and other Igbo leaders can do is to retract their past statements on the Operation Python Dance II and to encourage troops to root out other evils that have made Igboland a place that other Nigerians avoid.

According to the group, the ill-conceived quit notice to Igbos by some Northern youths had exposed how groups like IPOB placed Igbos at a disadvantage because Igbos settle in other parts of the country in large numbers while only a few persons of other ethnic groups make Igboland their homes because of attitudes like the one exhibited by Kanu.

INM noted that going forward, the expectation is that Ohaneze and anyone that genuinely calls himself a leader in Igboland must put the interest of Igbo people above their personal interests and this includes accepting that IPOB was a monster that was set to consume the genuine cause which every Igbo man had vigorously pursued in the past.

ALSO READ: "IPOB: Group accuses BSS of perpetuating assassination, kidnapping in the S/East"

According to the movement, had the military not stopped IPOB and Kanu, the path they were threading was on the verge of making Igbos lose what they had toiled to build in other parts of Nigeria in the past five decades, given the way they needlessly antagonized other ethnic groups, including calling for their death.