A former Governor of Abia State, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, has said that the Igbos will be forced to retaliate the killing of their kinsmen in the North if the act does not stop immediately.
Kalu said the killing of Christians and Southerners living in the North was unacceptable.
Kalu, in a statement on Tuesday, said: “We shall no longer turn the other cheek but shall demand an eye for an eye.”
The statement, titled: “Halt Anti-Igbo Pogrom, Killings of Christians/Southerners in Northern Nigeria Immediately,” added: “It is unacceptable that whenever there is any disagreement or crisis of any sort in this country the Igbo are targeted whether the issue at stake concerns them.
“Whether the recent bombings and slaughters in churches are attributable to the hatred of western education or making the country ungovernable for the President or even the alleged quest for revenge by the Boko Haram sect, or the alleged extra judicial killing of its leader, none of these issues has anything to do with the Igbo.
“The Igbo as a group have paid dearly for the unity of this country, and despite the pogrom that preceded the civil war, and the genocide against them during the civil war, they have continued to believe in and practically work for the unity of this country, settling and developing the economies of all parts of this country, despite the continued marginalization and balkanization of their region. Everywhere you go, you see the Igbo. We are the salt of the nation.”
Kalu said if no one intervenes to stop the killings, the Igbos will have no choice but to retaliate, adding: “Their (Igbos) reluctance to resort to revenge killings is not out of cowardice but because of their belief in the rule of law with the hope that the Federal government will bring perpetrators to book….”