Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have condemned the violent attack on a former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, by persons said to be members of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) in Nurnberg, Germany.
Omo-Agege, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Yomi Odunuga on Sunday, said the attack was
“not only a dastardly exportation of irrationality but an aggressive international affront against the image of Igbos and Nigeria.”
The incumbent Deputy Senate President expressed shock over the undeserved assault and called on law enforcement agencies in Germany to investigate and bring to book all those involved in the vicious attack.
“Senator Ekweremadu honoured the invitation of patriotic Igbos in Germany who wanted him to deliver a keynote address at the event organized to commemorate the New Yam Festival but some aggressively discourteous elements hijacked the effort to perpetrate a disgraceful assault that seeks to deepen the portrayal of members of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) as enemies of democratic norms and values in which the majority must always have its way after the minority must have had its due say in all matters.
“What they did is not only a violent assault against the good image of the Igbo race across the world but an aggressive attack against the traditional norms of a people known to be hardworking and respectful of meaningful contributions by leaders such as Senator Ekweremadu.
“Such disappointing physical abuse also grossly disregards Senator Ekweremadu’s democratic antecedents and his longstanding commitment to the cause of his people. But, as he has said out of the usual largeness of his forgiving heart, these people know not what they do.
“Such criminal attack, along with other anti-social attempt to accuse, condemn and lynch anyone remains utterly condemnable and illegal, notwithstanding whether it takes place on Nigerian or foreign soil as it is the easiest invitation to anomie,” Senator Omo-Agege stated.
While condemning the attack on Ekweremadu, the PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbodiyan, amply noted that the former Deputy Senate President was attending the Second Igbo Annual Festival in Germany where he was duly scheduled as a speaker and special guest of honour when he was attacked.
The party said the attack was “uncalled for, unprovoked and cannot be justified under any guise whatsoever,” adding that “such assault on a leader is completely unacceptable and does not portray our nation in proper light.”
The opposition party charged the Nigerian Ambassador to Germany as well as the German government to take appropriate decisive action on the matter.
The party also urged the Federal Government, particularly, the National Assembly, to “take urgent comprehensive step to address issues leading to acts of resentment and agitations by Nigerians within and outside the country in the last four years, under President Muhammadu Buhari’s misrule.”
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