A social-cultural group under the aegis of Igbo Women Elders Council, IWEC, has decried the systematic exclusion of Igbo’s from the security positions and the replacement of same with Muslims.

The group made this known at a press conference held in Awka, Anambra State, on Tuesday, April 27.

The conference was organized to discuss the state of the security crisis in Igbo speaking communities; what it considered to be a deliberate exclusion of the Igbo’s from the Nigerian security force through ‘a lopsided appointments’.

The conference was necessitated by the continuous deterioration of the security situation in the southeast region due to complicity and obvious compromise by security forces in the country on the assumed instructions of powers that be who the group claimed ‘have remained silent while Igbo’s are being maimed in their own country.

“This can clearly be seen in the appointment of heads of top security formations in the region and its outposts or gateway neighbor States, especially the heads of Army and Police formations and systematic exclusion of the citizens of the region from such choice security positions,” it said.

The group insists that the glaring exclusions constitute a grave violation of Section 14 (3) or regional and ethnic balancing, Section 10 or prohibition of adoption of a particular religion as a state religion, Section 217 (3) or reflection of regional or ethnic or religious balancing in the appointment of the officer corps of the Armed Forces and Section 42 or prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity, religion, gender, creed or class; all provided in the Constitution of Nigeria 1999, as amended.

“The Commander of 401 Special Forces Brigade, Makurdi is Brigadier Gen Samai’la Mohammed Uba, a Fulani-Hausa Muslim.

In Edo State, another major gateway into the South East, “The Brigade Commander of 4 Brigade, Benin is Brigadier Gen MA Sadiq, a Fulani-Hausa Muslim, and the State Commissioner of Police is Aliyu Ogbadu.

In Delta State, the State of origin of large outpost Igbo population, “The Brigade Commander of 63 Brigade, Asaba, Brigadier Gen. A. Idris is a Fulani-Hausa Muslim, and the State Commissioner of Police is Ari Mohammed Alli another Fulani-Hausa Muslim).

In Rivers State, a major gateway into the Southeast, “The GOC, 6 Division, Port Harcourt, is Major Gen. Sambo G Mohammed, Fulani-Hausa Muslim.

In Cross River State, a major Southeast neighbor, the State Commissioner of Police is Sikiru Akande, a South West Muslim.

In Akwa Ibom State, another South East gateway, “The Brigade Commander of 2 Brigade, Uyo, Brigadier Gen. Faruk Mijinyawa is a Fulani-Hausa Muslim.

It said that “The Police Zonal Commands in Calabar and Benin are also as at weeks back headed by Fulani-Hausa Muslims, AIG Zaki Ahmed incumbent AIG for Zone 6 and another is for Zone 5.

In neighboring Bayelsa State, Air Vice Marshall Aliyu Bello, a Fulani-Hausa Muslim is the Air Officer Commanding Nigerian Air Force Base in Yenagoa.

Going further into the South East Region, the group stated that “Major Gen Toareed Lagbaja, GOC, 82 Division, Enugu is Southwest Muslim.

“Brig Gen GS Mohammed, a Fulani-Hausa Muslim is the Commander, 82 Division Finance Corps.

“Brigadier Gen. Ibrahim Tukura, Fulani-Hausa Muslim, Brigade Commander, 34 Brigade, Obinze, Brig Gen. M. Ibrahim, Fulani-Hausa Muslim, and Brigade Commander, 14 Brigade, Ohafia, Col Abdulsalam Abubakar Sambo, is also a Fulani-Hausa Muslim.

It said that the Cantonment Commandant of the 302 Artillery Regiment, Onitsha, Lt Col O. Sadiq is a Muslim and Commanding Officer, 24 Army Support Engineering, Navy Commodore Suleiman Haruna Abdullahi, Commandant, Navy School of Finance and Logistics, Owerrinta, Abia State, Abakiliki, Nasiru Mohammed, Commissioner of Police, Imo State, are all Fulani-Hausa Muslim.

“Aliyu Garba, commissioner of Police, Ebonyi State, is also a Fulani Hausa Muslim along with Mohammed Aliyu, Commissioner of Police, Enugu State Command.

The rest are Monday Bella Kuryas, Commissioner of Police, Anambra State (Hausa Christian), and Janet Agbede, Commissioner of Police, Abia State. Police Zones 9 (Umuahia) and 13 (Ukpo-Anambra) are also in the hands of the same Fulani-Hausa Muslims and as at weeks ago, were headed by AIGs Zana Mohammed Ibrahim and Hafiz Mohammed,” It said.

It insisted that the only Igbo found among top security headship in the Region is the newly posted Air Officer Commanding (AOC) Air Force Ground Training Command, Enugu, Air Vice Marshall Frank Oparah who took over from Air Vice Marshall Idi Amin also a Fulani-Hausa Muslim.

The group also quoted INTERSOCIETY as it recently observed “That in top duty postings across the country done by Nigerian Army back in January 2021, involving 47 Major Generals, 163 Brig Generals, 450 Colonels, 309 Majors, 251 Captains, and 322 Lieutenants, totaling 1,546 Army officers.

“Out of the 47 major generals, North took 32 including 27 Muslims and South took 15 involving: South West – seven, including Muslims, South-south – five, and South-East got only three.

In the list of 163 Big Generals deployed across the country, “North took 110, including 84 Muslims, while South took 53 involving South West which got 23 including Muslims, South-South 20 and southeast got only 10.

It said that a further peep into the remaining postings involving 450 Colonels, 309 Majors, 251 Captains, and 322 Lieutenants also showed the same gross Northern Muslim domination and control and the shrinking of the South East slots in a federal system.

The group, therefore, concludes that as recently noted by INTERSOCIETY, “That the state actor on insecurity in South-East Nigeria can clearly be understood within the context of structural violence, physical violence, and cultural violence.

“Through government policy of structural violence, the South-East Region, especially since 2015, has been a victim of sustained exclusion and segregation in the appointment of top security and judicial officers. The Region is also facing enduring exclusion in top federal ministerial, agency, and department appointments.

It said that “These are to the extent that no officer of the South-East is presently among the 25 serving Assistant Inspectors General of Police or Army’s General Officers’ Commanding.

“No officer of the region is also among the head of the country’s 17 Police Zonal Commands headed by AIGs.

As part of the present Federal Government’s policy of exclusion and segregation, and little or zero efforts have been made to redress the gross imbalances.

“The situation is worsened by the conspiracy or lukewarm attitude or deafening silence of the present Governors of the South East. Specifically, the number of Igbos in the ranks of Police CPs, DCPs, ACPs, and CSPs is going down chronically so also their counterparts or equivalents in internal and external spy policing and paramilitaries. As it stands, the number of South East Police CPs with upward of two years to retire is not more than five, out of over 110 serving Commissioners of Police in Nigeria,” it said.

The group thus called on the federal government to take drastic actions before the situation gets out of hand.

“The Federal Government must, without further delay, demilitarize the South East region and its key outposts, including its named gateway neighbors by ending the current military and police siege in the region. We, therefore, demand immediate withdrawal of all the deployed military and police personnel on our roads, boundaries, and other strategic locations in the entire South East.

“We call on the federal government to immediately end the policy of flooding our land and its outposts with compromised Muslim military and police commanders. This must be reversed while all the top officers we have identified above must be transferred out of the South East States and its boundaries. To ensure effective policing in any region, the percentage of non-indigenous military and policing officers, including senior officers, must be drastically reduced to 30% so as to allow indigenous officers to fill the remaining 70% of the total slots or positions and give the indigenous citizens of the region a true sense of security and safety.

They also demanded that President Muhammadu Buhari immediately relieve Isa Ali Pantami, minister of Communication and Digital Economy, of his  Sheikh Isa Ali Pantami of the huge responsibility he is wielding to answer for all the atrocities committed against the Nigerian State.

According to them, although the minister openly admitted that he was a fundamentalist at his younger adult age but today, he has reformed, “No amount of reformation can bring a fundamentalist to reason correctly”.

The group, however, hoped that these demands are met within 60 days or the federal government will face the consequences.