CONTRARY to speculations in certain quarters, the Chairman, Council of Elders, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, has said there is no friction between Igbo and Yoruba in Lagos.
There had been allegations and counter-allegations between the Yoruba and Igbo, living in Lagos over the 2023 elections.
Iwuanyanwu stated that there was no war whatsoever between the Igbos and Yorubas in Lagos State.
He condemned individuals he described as political rascals for the ethnically charged rhetoric against the Igbo in the state.
“I want to tell those in Lagos to realise that there is no war between us and Yorubas. They are just political rascals, and we’re going to handle them,” Iwuanyanwu said Saturday at a ceremony in Anambra State to commemorate Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s one year in office.
“The elders have directed the Secretary General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, [Okey] Emuchay, to set up a commission of inquiry to find out things destroyed; people are going to pay.”
The Igbo elder stated that he convened a meeting of the Ohanaeze Council of Elders worldwide, who X-rayed the events in Lagos during the meeting held on Wednesday.
“I want to tell you that people who attended from our branches in America, Canada, Europe, London and Nigeria have resolved and I want those from Lagos to go home and tell those in Lagos.
“We have resolved that never again can we allow anybody to take the life of any innocent person. All of us are going to fight the person. Never again!”
The Ohanaeze leader asserted that southeastern natives were fellow Nigerians who had “so much” investments in the country.
Reacting to the rhetoric ordering Igbo sojourners to leave other regions, he said, “We are not going anywhere.”