7/28/2019 Igbos Were The Biggest Casualties Of June-12 Election
Annulment
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June 12 casualties: Group seeks compensation, says Ndigbo most
affected
ONITSHA An Igbo socio-cultural group, Ndigbo United Assembly,
(NUA) has stated thatNdigbo were the most casualties of the
violence that greeted the annulment of the June12, 1993
presidential election believed to have been won by Chief M.K.O
Abiola.
NUA therefore called on the federal government to intensify
efforts towards compensatingNdigbo in various ways such as dredging
of River Niger, building of the second Niger bridge and
possibly conceding the presidency to them, this time
around.Commenting on the June 12 saga, shortly after their
executive meeting in Onitsha, yesterday, thePresident-General of
NUA, Sir Peter Okala said that shortly after the annulment of
thepresidential election that returned late MKO Abiola as
President-Elect, Ndigbo wereslaughtered in various Western parts of
the country.Ndigbo United Assembly, (NUA), the only mouthpiece of
Ndigbo genuinely fighting for theliberation and against the
marginalization of the South East is aptly taking another look at
theJune 12 saga, from the perspective that it was our brothers and
sisters that were massacred in
some parts of the country, Okala further stated.Each time such
thing erupted in the country, Ndigbo are always at the receiving
end. To someextent, I can authoritatively say that the June 12 was
made against Ndigbo because historyhas been kind to us. It was
during the said election presided over by an Igbo man,
Prof.Humphrey Nwosu that Nigeria ever had free and fair election.
However, it was annulled byanti-Igbo elements and our brothers in
the West, out of anger descended on Ndigbo and inthe process, Igbos
lost their lives and investments and property, he said.
Sir Okala also said he noted with nostalgia how thousands of
Igbos were displaced during thecrisis in the West which he called
Oso Abiola and how many of them lost their lives and many of
them never recovered from the shock.However, the group further
called for the sack of the Minister of Transport, Senator Idris
Umarover what they called fraud in the ongoing dredging of lower
River Niger and the commencementof activities at the Onitsha River
Port many months after President Goodluck Jonathancommissioned
it.NUA also challenged South East Governors to account for the
ecological funds they havecollected from the Ecological Office with
a view to tackling ecological disasters in various parts ofthe
zone, adding that the zone is gradually caving in to erosion and
other natural disaster.
We are calling for the sack of the Minister of Transport,
Senator Idris Umar for his failure to tellNdigbo the truth
concerning the dredging of River Niger because we have monitored
the contractand found out that it was all sham and nothing is going
on there which we believe is helping tofurther cripple economy of
Ndigbo.
