Pro-democracy group berates S-South for allegedly abandoning S-East

Pro-democracy group, Campaign for Democracy (CD) has flayed the people of South South geopo­litical zone for their alleged lack of support for South-East cause.

The group in a statement is­sued yesterday in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, by its South-East Chairman, Dede Uzor Uzor, accused the South-South of abandoning their South-East brothers and showing no solidar­ity to Ndigbo over their plights.

The group berated the people of South-South for alleg­edly abandoning their South-East neighbours and brothers to their fate when both zones were sup­posed to be united and jointly pursue their cause.

According to CD, abandon­ment will be a wrong way of pay­ing back the South East people for their massive and unprec­edented support to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, a son of South-South.

They argued that over 90 per­cent of Ndigbo wholeheartedly supported Jonathan’s second term bid, an action that “has made Ndigbo look like political orphans under the present ad­ministration”.

The pro-democracy group called on South-South leaders to speak out against numerous in­justices perpetrated by the Feder­al Government against the South East particularly the continued incarceration of the the Radio Biafra Director and leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.

They regretted that since Kanu was detained by the Federal Gov­ernment on October 17, 2015, South-South leaders have not shown any concern in the efforts to secure his release.

The group also advised South South leaders to apologise to Ndigbo over the obnoxious pol­icy of abandoned property which dispossessed millions of Igbos of their hard-earned property after the Civil War.

CD urged people from the South South and South East zones to always see themselves as “one and the same people”, and to resist any attempt by outsiders to “sow seed of discord between them”.

They also called for unity and stronger economic ties between both zones, arguing that if the abundant natural resources re­plete in both zones are properly harnessed, “no zone in Nigeria will match them by all standards”.