IKE EKWEREMADU AND KIDNAPPING IN SOUTH EAST NIGERIA?

Icheoku read with shock reports implicating and/or associating Nigeria's deputy senate president Ike Ekweremadu with kidnapping in Enugu State? Icheoku also read another report of a denial of the alleged by the deputy senate president through his spokesperson. Whether Ike Ekweremadu is an innocent victim in the kidnapping saga or a godfather/benefactor of those kidnappers, providing them with necessary cover from his Abuja high office as deputy senate president, no one really knows; but sure, smoke usually follows a fire!

Some Nigerian politicians are so brutally selfish and self-centered that they are capable of just anything and everything under the sun including as in this case, kidnapping? For them as long as there is some political gain to be made and provided there is no adversarial impact on them and their families, the harmattan wind wild fire might as well assume a blaze of Hades velocity for all they care.

In this case of alleged Ekweremadu's involvement with kidnappers, there are so many 'known unknowns' and many things we think we know which we don't know; but the only certainty that presently exist is that there was an allegation and then a subsequent denial. As always, between the allegation and the denial lies the shed of grey, which usually houses the nest of the real story or put in another way, where the whole truth and nothing but the truth lies. Icheoku will however not second-guess anything at this time nor without any convincing evidence, wantonly brand anyone a suspect. We would air on the side of side of reasonable doubt and hope there is no smoking gun anywhere and elsewhere. But the scourge of kidnapping in the South East has become a terminal cancer and everyone with any Igbo blood flowing in his/her veins should see it as not deserving any flicker of life whatsoever. It is about time something drastic is collectively done to put these kidnappers out of business and for good! Enough of these ongoing blackmails and wanton shedding of blood of innocents in the South East and turning Igboland into inhabitable desolate 'wasteland?'

Now the question remains, what is the South East doing to curb and peter out the banditry of kidnapping which is turning the once proud land of our fathers into the new 'old Lebanon' of Nigeria? Where are the Igbo supposed leaders at this hour of great need to call these maga-dogs to order and at worst order their eradication from the land through self-help vigilantism, if that is what it takes to wrest our communities back from these band of marauding thugs. Icheoku asks, what is Ikemba Nnewi Odumegwu Ojukwu's position on this and whether he has spoken out condemning this malaise and ordering these beasts to beat it from his South East? What has Alex Ekwueme done or said about this hooliganism and has he reminded these animals the quantum of damage they are doing to the Igbo nation?

Where is Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu on this or is he waiting for another pitiful Vincent Ogbulafor's corruption scandal to erupt eliciting his removal from office for him to start running around and pontificating about a non existent "Igbo-ness"? Is Ebitu Ukiwe, Uche Chukwumerije, Jim Nwobodo, Ndubuisi Kalu, Allison Madueke, Ike Nwachukwu etc keeping silence and waiting for who to bell the cat? Why are all these Emperors Nero of Igbo-land singing, playing the fiddle and making merry while Rome of Igboland burns in an inferno of unprecedented ferocity? A time for providing real leadership in and for Igboland never called until this moment, and any supposed Igbo leader who fails to answer the call of fatherland should forever hold his peace and never once again, so parade him/herself. How could mother-hen be watching while the hawks continue to make a mince meat of her chicks, with unabashed sky-bombardments?

Recently, Edo (Benin) Kingdom got tired of such too many incidents of armed robbery and kidnapping and took the matter into their hands to solve it. They invoked a traditional panacea over their land, putting a diabolical curse on anyone directly or indirectly connected with the social malady. Low and behold, Benin Kingdom have enjoyed relative peace ever since and it was at the instance of their King, Omo N'Oba Erediuwa 1 that the Chief Priest Nosakhare Isekhure administered the curse. This forces Icheoku to ask, are there still 'Kings and/or Chiefs' left in Igbo land and what are they doing to help their subjects who are under an enveloping siege by a band of kidnappers? If Icheoku remembers correctly, there is this one all-over-the-place supposed Igbo Royal Highness and chairman/leader of all Igbo traditional rulers, HRH Eze Cletus Ikechukwu Ilomuanya, who sometime ago was engaged in a visceral battle with all the "Ezes of Ndi Igbo" of this world? It was then his self-assumed battle to stop anyone anywhere from assuming the ceremonious title of "Eze Igbo" be it in the north, west, south and even in the Diaspora?

This particular ruler was travelling to every kingdom, emirate and chiefdoms in Nigeria from the Emir of Kano to the Sultan of Sokoto to the Oba of Lagos to the Oba of Benin, practically begging them not to recognize any 'Eze Igbo' in their domain and to withdraw any such existing recognition from any Igbo man residing therein. Icheoku wrote an oped then, denouncing his effort as a waste of time and an evidence of a man with so much selfish ego and a desire to be the one and only 'Eze Igbo' in Nigeria? It is also important to point out that it did not matter then to this chief that these other 'Eze Igbo' in foreign lands have no real nexus to the Igbo South East and are not in any competition with him and his ilks; or in any other way a threat to their respective stools and/or kingdoms. But now that a real task militating against 'Ndi Igbo' has arisen, needing a real Igbo ruler/chief to rise up and go to war as in good old days, no one has seen the brake-lights of this traditional ruler nor heard his comment. Icheoku asks Chief Ilomuanya where are you and what is going on in Igboland; or are you afraid of also being kidnapped?

What use are these Igbo rulers/leaders when their women and children are living in bondage of the fear of kidnappers in their homeland if they cannot provide necessary leadership needed to run these bastards out of town? Where are the Igbo governors of the five South East states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo or are they like Ike Ekweremadu, also sleeping with the enemy and sympathetic to their cause; in order to later use them to scare away any possible opposition come 2011? Icheoku is ashamed that these urchins have been allowed for too long to turn Igboland, the once proud home of such greats as Zik, KO Mbadiwe, Dee Sam Mbakwe, Pius Okigbo etc into a practically no go area or at best a 'visit at your own risk' enclave and with such a great trepidation. When will this fog of darkness ever lift from dear motherland.

It is about time this menace is put to an end and we hereby unequivocally condemn kidnappings in the South East as it is not only criminal but also giving all Igbo man and woman one heck of a bad name. These imbeciles who have turned Igbo nation into an unlivable hell-hole should really be ashamed of themselves for being the lilly-livered cowards they are, who are only strong at home. What happened to the standard test of bravado of the yore when real men go to foreign lands to plunder and bring home their loot? What happened to taking bravery abroad to go wrest back from the 'Whiteman' what they took from the continent centuries ago and are still taking? What happened to taking mercenary jobs in Afghanistan, Iraq and other such hot-spots of the world where brave men go to prove their mettle? Why become mere frustrated 'kitchen-brave' scumbags throwing their birds-muscles at motherland, robbing and kidnapping hapless Igbo men and women who still hold forte and call Igboland home; when many with means have simply deserted the region, fled to other regions for safety. But who are these faceless urchins that cannot be stopped or is there no willingness on the part of the Igbo people to have this come to an end?

Finally, talking directly to these bandits, Icheoku says please for God's sake call off this madness before you cost IGP Ogbonna Onovo, the first Igbo Inspector General of Police, his job. As you may be aware, Nigerians are becoming very restive and are questioning if IGP Onovo is up to the task of policing Nigeria since he cannot even police his own South East region by getting rid of these kidnappers. So South East kidnappers, if you have any common sense, you should help IGP Onovo to succeed in his job and enable him serve out his term before he is prematurely removed for perceived 'incompetence' in failing to reign in kidnapping, a problem wrought by you, his kinsmen and women. Icheoku is also calling on every Igbo man and woman to rise up against this army of invaders and fight them off the land and with their last blood if necessary.

This metastasised cancer of kidnapping in the South East demands that all Igbo hands be turned into surgical-hands, united to excise it; with the governors providing the leadership effort before marshal law is declared, replacing them with milads, who could then take these states back from those lowlife kidnappers. Worst case scenario, give the Bakassi boys back their machetes and cutlasses and let the real brave man be left standing. Also whatever is left of the fractured MASSOB should consider this kidnapping as an affront on their fledgling 'statehood' or how else can they assure Igbo people that they will be capable of providing good governance when they cannot rout out these shitless kidnappers from their territory? The governors of the South East are hereby warned and put on notice, either they urgently lead the effort at purging the South East of these kidnappers or President Jonathan should declare a state of emergency and let military administrators put a stop to these arrant nonsense and give the Igbo people back their homeland, freed of kidnappers!