Herdsmen's Menace: Ohanaeze youths set up vigilante group

To protect residents of Abia, Anambra, Delta, Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo and Rivers States against the activi­ties of armed Fulani herdsmen, the Ohaneze Youth Council (OYC) has established the Igbo Vigilante Group (IVG).

The group said the security outfit became inevitable follow­ing the apparent failure of the Federal Government to protect Ndigbo against the recurring attacks of herdsmen on Igbo-speaking communities.

In a statement issued yester­day by the Ebonyi State Chair­man of OYC, Mazi Alex Okemi­ri, OYC was silent on the modus operandi of the security outfit, but urged the governors and stakeholders in all Igbo-speak­ing states to support the organ­isation.

Meanwhile, OYC has named Abia State Governor, Ifeanyi Okezie Ikpeazu as the best performing Igbo governor after an assessment of the ten­ure of all the governors in key sectors.

Okemiri said the gover­nors were assessed based on the achievements they posted since they assumed office a year ago.

The group congratulated the governors on their first anni­versary in office and urged them to continue to meet the yearnings of their people.

Okemiri said: “After a poll conducted by the group as part of its Democracy Day Assess­ment, Governor Okezie Ikpea­zu of Abia State emerged as the best performing newly-elected governor in Igboland.

“The poll covered such areas as infrastructure, security, educa­tion, health, transparency in gov­ernance, youth and women em­powerment and participation in government and other vital indi­ces,” he said.

The OYC said the assess­ment would be conducted an­nually at the eve of the Democ­racy Day and congratulated the governors for being “winners in their own respect.”

It also commended past Igbo governors who made out­standing achievements while in office and urged all political of­fice holders in the zone to place the collective interest of Ndigbo above their personal gains.

The group particular­ly applauded Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State “for per­sonally constructing a befitting Secretariat for Ohaneze Ndigbo, a rare feat in the annals of Igbo history.”

The youth body, therefore, appealed to other governors to build “Igbo Hall of Fame and Cenotaph” in their state secretar­iats to complement the efforts of Governor Okorocha.

It further urged the Igbo governors to support the Chief Gary Igariwey-led leadership of the Ohaneze Ndigbo in its bid to advance the cause of the Igbo na­tion.