Members of the Amalgamated Market Traders Association of Anambra State (AMATAS) have warned that any more killing of Igbo indigenes in the North would be retaliated in the South- East.
In an address of protest presented to the chairman of the South-East Governors’ Forum and governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, by the chairman of the association, Chief Okwudili Nwankwo, stated that Igbos are in all parts of Nigeria and running genuine businesses; warning that any further attack would be meted with a reprisal.
“We, representatives of traders of all the markets in Anambra State are protesting the senseless killings and wanton destruction of properties belonging to the Igbos in various parts of Northern Nigeria.
“The law of this great nation gives everyone the right to live and run their businesses in any part of the country irrespective of tribe or religion. For the lives of Igbo traders to be cut short in any part of this country for no reason is unacceptable,” he said.
The president General told Governor Obi that their visit was to express their bitterness over the killings of their kinsmen in the North, saying, “We want to warn that no group has monopoly to violence. We have been pushed to the wall, and we demand that it stops now.
“We want to warn that henceforth, Ndigbo will match violence for violence, killing for killing, bomb for bomb and burning for burning. Any part of the North where violence is meted against the Igbos will see us match to that part and return fire for fire henceforth.”
In a related development, the Adazi Nnukwu Town Development Union, the umbrella body of all Adazi Nnukwu indigenes has challenged Former Governor Murtala Nyako to come up with proof to newspaper publications by the Adamawa State government that the slain Igbo traders in Mubi, Adamawa State by members of the Boko Haram sect had business disagreements in cattle businesses.