Anambra State All progressives Congress (APC) governorship hopeful, Dr. Chris Ngige, has queued up in support of the July 24 deportation of 72 non-indigenes who were dropped at Onitsha, Anambra State, in the wee hours of the morning by agents of the Lagos State Government.

In a July 30 letter which he wrote to Igbo think tank Aka Ikenga, Ngige, currently the Senator for Anambra Central, did not only justify the action but also provided details of alleged interaction between Lagos and Anambra state governments before the “destitute” were dumped in Onitsha.

Ngige, according to a story in today’s edition of The Nation newspaper, wrote the letter following a July July 28 meeting at which Aka Ikenga requested the former Anambra State governor to find out what transpired. The senator is the second high-placed Anambra citizen to support the action, after Chief Joe Igbokwe, another APC chieftain currently in the employment of the Lagos State Government as General Manager of the Lagos State Infrastructure Maintenance and Regulatory Agency (LASIMRA).

Ngige, according to the Lagos-based Nation, said that after his meeting with Governor Babatunde Fashola, he discovered that it was not about deportation “but a social welfare intervention involving several homeless destitute and other psychiatric cases roaming the streets and some living under the bridges in Lagos.”

Continuing, Ngige said in the letter: “These people were taken in and treated and cared for by the Lagos State Government free of charge and thereafter needed to be reintegrated with their families.

“After this rehabilitation, the affected people disclosed their true identities and the disclosure revealed that 14 of them were from Anambra State. For the purpose of reintegration with their kith and kin back home (most of them have nobody in Lagos) and for further social support and care, Lagos State Government communicated the Anambra State Government as well as other affected state governments to come forward and identify and take over their people.

“On receipt of this communication, Anambra State Government requested for the identities of those claiming to be from the state (see letter as annex 2). The list was promptly supplied to them by Lagos State for immediate and urgent action (see letter as annex 3).

“With further contact and pressure, Anambra State Government preferred that the handing over be done at Onitsha Bridgehead and Lagos State obliged but found no Anambra State Government representative on arrival on the agreed date and was hence forced to leave the people at a government office they found at the Niger Bridgehead.

“The Lagos State Government further explained that this kind of exchange of destitute occurs between states, as she recently went to Akwa Ibom State to take back two of her rehabilitated citizens.

“You will recall Mr. President of Aka Ikenga that I had assured the Aka Ikenga members that the Lagos State Government that I am familiar with will not go out of its way to cause hardship to our people and this is evident in its deposition as the first Government of Lagos State to appoint Igbo as commissioner and many others into other cabinet political position.

“For the promotion and maintenance of the good relationship that exists between the Igbo who form about 25 per cent of the population of Lagos State and their Lagos host, I have secured an appointment for you, the President and Executive members of Aka Ikenga to further discuss this matter and other sundry issues affecting Ndi Igbo in Lagos, with the Lagos State Governor on a date that will be mutually agreed to by both parties.

“As a member of Action Congress of Nigeria the (ACN), which is the party in power in Lagos State, I wish to further reassure you and Aka Ikenga in particular and Ndi Igbo in general, that the government of Lagos State, that I am familiar with does not and will not habour any anti-Igbo agenda, as is being insinuated in certain quarters.”

•Photo shows Senator Ngige.

Update news