Oodua People’s Congress, OPC, has condemned the militarization of
some part of the South-East under Operation Python Dance, in the
obvious attempt to arrest the growing influence of the Nnamdi Kanu led
Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
In a statement issued by the OPC on Thursday, and signed by its
Publicity Secretary, Yinka Oguntimehin, the group said the agitation of
IPOB could be fruitfully addressed through dialogue rather than the
military option being adopted by the Federal government.
The OPC said it did not believe there was any security threat in
Umuahia and its environs to warrant the deployment of soldiers to
intimidate and molest innocent Nigerians who are going about their
lawful business.
According to the Yoruba group, the Federal Government should be
careful in handling the IPOB issue, adding that any agitation that has
been able to attract international sympathy and support like that of
IPOB should be handled with utmost care and high degree of diplomacy.
It stressed that the implication of the Military presence in the East
and North East at the same time naturally sends signal of civil war in
the country to the international Community, and this will discourage
investors, especially now that the country is assumed to have survived
recession.
The OPC said history does not favour military suppression of
agitating groups, citing the case of Odi where MEND surfaced strongly
and serious damage was done to the nation’s economy even after the President
Olusegun Obasanjo led Federal Government was supposed to have
successfully muscled the South South community to silence.
It said oil supply was forced down to 750 barrel per day from its
usual 2.5m barrel as a result of MEND activities, adding that profitable
oil activities only picked up in the Niger Delta after the Late
President Yar’dua led government successfully dialogued with MEND.
Warning against the implication of the military attack on IPOB and
Umuahia leading to the killing of many, the OPC said, “All efforts must
be made to guard jealously the hard earned democracy which individuals
and groups fought hard to enthrone.”
The OPC said the nation’s democracy is daily being threatened by
sundry issues, chief among them injustice, security and the economy,
which it said could naturally be resolved without bloodletting if the
Federal Government could be sincere enough to take the best possible
option of restructuring the country.
Re-iterating its call for the restructuring of the country along
regional line, the OPC advised government “to take conscious effort to
ensure that the incessant bloodletting in the country is arrested
instead of aiding it through unnecessary militarization of the country
like is being done in the South East”.
The statement added that the recent happenings in Abia between
soldiers and members of the public had underscored the urgency to
reconsider the necessity of Operation Python Dance 2.