Reactions have continued to trail reported burning of a mosque at
Ogrute, in Igbo-Eze North council area of Enugu State last weekend.
This time, some residents, who expressed outraged over claims that
members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the area were
responsible for the incident, dismissed the allegation, saying that the
Biafran group had no footing in the area.
Also, the IPOB has totally distanced itself from the incident,
stating that it was merely an attempt to associate it with violence and
justify military clampdown on its members.
This is also as the Enugu State Police Command has dismissed the claims, maintaining that investigation showed the inferno was caused by power surge.
Accordingly, residents of the area, who reacted to the report were
categorical that only the Muslim worshippers, who own the place of
worship and some of their adherents who usually slept in the mosque
could tell what happened to the facility.
They contended that those who caused the harm did so to create the erroneous impression that the IPOB crisis also hit the area.
Most of the respondents said either certain elements within the
members of Islamic region caused the havoc to get the Enugu State
government to build a new mosque for them or that a possible power surge
owing to the coincidental restoration of public electric power that day
could have caused the fire.
In his own reaction, George Onyeke, a resident of the area stated
that “I would not believe that if this incident is a case of arson, it
could have been caused by anybody outside the users of the mosque. In
the past week that IPOB clash with the military occurred, the crisis did
not affect anywhere in Enugu State.
“Those who are Muslims here are our brothers. They are indigenes who
have been using that mosque for decades and they have never had any
problem with adherents of other religions. And I have not seen any IPOB
activity that has been noticeable in our local government.
“In fact, those investigating this incident should ask the owners of
the mosque what actually happened. They are always around the mosque.
So, they should have known when it was on fire”, he contended.
In their separate reactions, Peter Ezocha and Simeon Enwe who reside
at Ogrute, Enugu-Ezike, headquarters of the local government area,
stated that those who set the mosque ablaze may have wanted to extort
money from the Enugu State governor and to get the government to build a
new one for them.
They wondered why none of the “muslims who live around the mosque and
even those who usually sleep in the mosque on the eve of Eke Market day
which is the day it occurred did nothing to contain the fire”.
They stated that “It is also highly suspicious that none of the owners of the mosque could give account of how the fire started.
“Rather, every one of them told the governor when he visited that they woke up on Saturday morning to see the building razed.”
On its part, IPOB through its spokesman, Emma Powerful dissociated
the group from the incident “and any other concocted news of an attack
or vandalism, especially on Muslims and their places of worship.”
“IPOB is not unaware of the desperation of the Nigerian army of
occupation to cause mayhem and blame it on IPOB as a way of instigating
counter violence against Southerners in the North.
“The aim of this army of occupation led by exclusively Hausa Fulani
officers is to distract our focus and firm resolve to force a peaceful
referendum within the law. No amount of violence visited on our family
members will dissuade us from this historic and legitimate course.
“We wish to further state unequivocally that Muslims and other
non-Biafrans living in South-East and South South have nothing to fear
from IPOB, as our members are committed to a nonviolent, unarmed
struggle for self determination, which is guaranteed in charters of the
United Nations, international laws and other extant laws on fundamental
human rights.
“IPOB does not need to remind Nigerians that it is the culture in
Biafraland to protect our visitors and any of these alleged heinous acts
are viewed by the great family of IPOB as abomination which our
leadership and members condemn in their entirety.
“IPOB members should be vigilant and stay away from the provocative
government- sponsored death squads whose main objective is to draw we
Biafrans to another unplanned civil war but God forbid”, he stated.