It was the second time such human cargo was dropped in the town this year.
It was gathered that they were brought in a trailer and escorted by a police patrol van with heavily armed police men which, after discharging them at the popular Upper Iweka flyover at about 3.20am, made a U–turn and headed back to Lagos.
Many of them showed signs of lunacy as they could not say their names and home towns, while a few others who could speak claimed that they were brought into the city by the Lagos State government.
Some of them said they had been in detention for many years before they were finally released and put in a trailer and brought to Onitsha.
An eyewitness said when he saw the trailer stop at night, he initially thought it was carrying contraband goods and perhaps wanted to beat the customs officials by using early morning to come into Onitsha, adding that he was shocked to see human beings were forced out of the lorry.
The eyewitness, who simply gave his name as John, said: "I was woken up by the light from the police escort van when it reached the fly over. I noticed that a trailer was coming behind the police patrol van and suddenly the trailer stopped and they began to ask these people to come down.
"It was then I noticed that there were some people who could not alight from the trailer on their own and the driver and some policemen helped them and brought them down. Immediately after dropping them, the lorry and the police van made a "U" turn and headed back to Head Bridge".
"When the day broke, I saw about 70 persons that looked malnourished, some of them were already insane."
According to him, some of the people who looked healthy started running into the commercial city after they were brought into the town, while the apparently insane ones stayed till the day break when residents of the city came to catch a glimpse of them and started buying food and other consumables for them.
Some people at Upper Iweka said some of the people were not Igbos as they spoke Yoruba and Edo. At about 1 pm yesterday, few of the deportees were still hanging around the area.
One of them who gave her name as Chima said he hails from Abia State, adding that she was arrested some time in May last year by a group of people in uniform on her way to Okokomaiko in Lagos where she lived.
She said that she was kept in a dark room that looked like a warehouse for several days along with many other people, adding that up till the time she was brought into Onitsha, she never knew what she did that warranted her arrest.
She also said that many of those arrested along with her died in detention
The Area Commander of the police at Onitsha, Mr. 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 and the state in general, especially with governorship and local government elections drawing near.
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.
ReplyDeleteNow 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.