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Almajiris: North exports food to South East, not COVID-19 – Ohanaeze

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4 years ago

May 24, 2020

The apex Igbo socio-political organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has dismissed the allegations that the influx of almajiris into the Southeast was an attempt to infect inhabitants of the region with COVID-19.

Ohanaeze’s Secretary-General, Barr. Uche Okwukwu said such claims should be dismissed because Northerners are responsible for the food supplies in the Southeast.

Following the outbreak of COVID-19 in Nigeria, several almajiris have been caught attempting to illegally enter the Southeast.

Recall that Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, had accused Northern leaders of exporting infected almajiris to the Southeast to kill Igbo people.

However, Okwukwu insisted that such claim was not true because the Northerners supply even food to the Southeast without infecting what they supply.

According to Okwukwu: “I don’t agree with that kind of allegation. Interesting enough, those coming in and out of the Southeast, west and other parts of the country are Nigerian citizens and they have the right to movement except where there is a closure of state borders on the order of the president or governor.

“You can’t use the action of a few persons to represent a group. That few persons were found at the border trying to enter cannot amount to a plot by the North to infect the East or Southern part of the country with coronavirus.

“The Northerners are not the originators of coronavirus in the world. They are equally victims of it. The North, Nigeria and Africa are all victims of coronavirus.

“This is something that started from China into the west, Europe and America. All of us must come out and address the pandemic.

“The food we are eating in the East and South come from the North. Tomatoes, onions, cucumber, garlic, goat, cow are all coming from the North.

“So if the North is giving us food without infecting us, why should we think that some persons from the North entering the East are attempting to infect us? That is not true.”