Alaba Market Demolition: Bring Your Investments From Southwest, Northern Nigeria To Southeast, IPOB Tells Igbos In Lagos, Others

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has asked the people of Southeast Nigeria ( the Igbos ) living and doing business in Lagos State and other parts of Western and Northern Nigeria to return all their investments and businesses to the Southeast to avoid destruction.

 

 

The call by IPOB came amid the ongoing demolition of shops at the popular Alaba International Market by the Lagos State government.

SaharaReporters earlier reported how leaders of the market located in the Ojo Local Government Area of Lagos accused Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration of demolishing their buildings in the market.

 

They accused the state government of planning to take the market from them and hand it over to some Chinese investors who reportedly want to establish a multipurpose market.

 

 

 

Alaba Market is believed to be dominated by people of Igbo extraction.

 

 

Reacting to the demolition exercise on Tuesday in a statement by its Media and Publicity, IPOB said it had been calling on Igbo people living abroad to come back to the Southeast (home) and invest.

It also called on Igbo people in the Western and Northern regions of Nigeria “to take their investments to Igbo land (ala Igbo) to avoid destruction.”

 

 

While sympathising with those whose businesses and properties have been destroyed in the ongoing demolition in Lagos, IPOB said Igbo people in Lagos “are currently victims of ethnic profiling and prejudice,” and that Igbos “have been victims of human and economic destruction from fellow Nigerians right from the amalgamation of the three major nations into Nigeria by Britain up to today.”

The secessionist group said, “It is high time Igbos say enough is enough! Igbos have lost countless lives and properties in their many decades of existence as Nigerians through religious and tribal riots in Northern Nigeria.

 

 

“We came to understand that they are removing those buildings wrongly built on top of canal but following the hatred Yoruba politicians had against Ndigbo our people must be prepared because they will come for other buildings within the market, IPOB call on our people to be ready they are coming but they will regret their actions soon.

 

 

“During and after 2023 elections in Nigeria, Igbos in Yoruba land have been targeted for annihilation and economic sabotage due to political bigotry. The ongoing destruction of major business places of Ndigbo like portions of Alaba International Market is one of their planned strategies to put a lot of Igbo hardworking youths into poverty.

 

 

“We are calling on Ndigbo in Lagos and throughout the Northern parts of Nigeria to return home and build shopping malls, modern markets, supermarkets, and plazas in Biafra Land.

 

 

“On the other hand, we encourage our people to begin large-scale farming of Igbo staple foods. We had developed a buoyant economic region before the Nigerian government imposed their devastating economic policies that forced a lot of Biafrans out of the East.

 

 

“It is time for us to think home. Nothing will happen to us. We must succeed because God Almighty, Chukwu Okike Abiama is always on our side anywhere we go. Lagos is not Biafra land. If you are told to leave Lagos, do that with all pleasure. We have enough land in Biafra for any infrastructural development.”

 

 

Warning against the destruction of businesses and properties belonging to Igbo people in Lagos, IPOB said, “It’s unfortunate that many Yoruba elders are not speaking up against the ethnic attacks on Ndigbo. However, we are urging Yoruba politicians not to destroy Igbo people’s properties but give them time to take their properties and their movable assets to Igboland.

 

 

“Continuous destruction of properties of Igbos will provoke unimaginable reactions that Yorubas are not expecting. Don’t underrate Great Biafrans, or you will have yourself to blame.”