Okorie, has attacked Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka,
for comparing the killings of Nigerians by Boko Haram to
the genocide on the Biafran people during the Nigerian
civil war.
Okorie said the statement credited to Soyinka in his interview with the AFP was grossly an overstatement, alleging that it
smacked of a deliberate attempt to annoy the Igbo and
the peoples that made up Biafra for the genocide they
suffered in the hands of Gen. Yakubu Gowon, and the
death of about two million people.
He cautioned that should Prof. Soyinka fail to apologise
for his statement; as that was an attempt to re-open old
wounds of the genocide, Igbo Ezue would mobilize all
Igbo people not to associate with the renowned
playwright and Nobel Laureate.
The political leader argued "in the extent of destruction,
prosecution of the genocide, the casualty list and
legitimacy, Biafra, a state with a government, could
never be compared with a terrorist organisation.
"We consider Prof. Soyinka's statement in the matter of
Nigeria/Biafra war as insensitive, reckless and
irresponsible. It is even more reprehensible, considering
the fact that to some small extent, Soyinka was involved
in that war to the point of being suspected by the
Nigerian government at that time of conniving and
collaborating with Gen. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-
Ojukwu, the Head of State of the defunct Republic of
Biafra.
"To correct part of the deliberate misrepresentation as
contained in Soyinka's unguarded statement, we wish to
state that the mandate given to Gen. Chukwuemeka
Odumegwu-Ojukwu to declare the Independent State of
Biafra was given to him by the then Eastern Nigeria
Consultative Assembly and a large part of Mid-Western
Region in the present South-East and South-South
geopolitical zones of Nigeria.
"It was mischievous of Prof. Soyinka to reduce Biafra to a
sole Igbo agenda that could have torn Nigeria up into
ethnic regions".
He continued: "The war was fought on land, air and sea.
Starvation, as a legitimate instrument of warfare, was
deployed as strategic policy of the Nigerian Government
to annihilate not just the Igbo people but also the people
of Eastern Region and the present Delta State. Market
places and institutions of learning from primary to
university institutions came under heavy bombardment
by the Nigeria Air force resulting to the closure of these
institutions for as long as the war lasted. Many Biafrans
of school age lost a minimum of three years in their
academic pursuit.
"On the other hand, the Boko Haram insurgency is for all
intents and purposes, a faceless terrorist organisation
confined in some remote places in the North-East
geopolitical zone of Nigeria. As gruesome and
horrendous as the attacks of the terrorists may be, it is
clear that the school system in the North-East
geopolitical zone is on-going", Okorie said.
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