All Progressives Congress (APC) Lagos chieftain, Engr. Joe Igbokwe, has dismissed those scriticising Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola over the July 24 deportation of 72 alleged destitute Igbos as cowards and “empty heads shouting from the rooftops.”

Igbokwe, who is the Lagos State Government as General Manager of the Lagos State Infrastructure Maintenance and Regulatory Agency (LASIMRA), dropped the bombshell around 10 O’clock this morning while contributing to an online debate on Yahoo communities such as IgboWorldForum, UmuAnambra, Anambra-WorldForum and NaijaObserver.

The firebrand activist who was heavily criticised for defending the expulsion of the alleged destitute dumped at Onitsha in the wee hours of the morning by officials of the Lagos State Government also berated his Igbo kinsfolk for allegedly not knowing their friends and enemies.

He said that “kidnappings in Lagos are one hundred percent Igbo-driven and yet Gov Fashola has not deported any of them,” adding: “Our people have been involved in armed robbery, 419, drug trafficking, vandalization of street lights cables etc in Lagos and yet Lagos accomodates them.”

Hear him: “My experience with Ndigbo in Lagos will take a book to tell. Our people do not know their enemies. They do not know their friends either. Igbo must have the power of creativity, the power of strategic thinking, power of critical thinking. Igbo are about to repeat the mistakes of the past in the South West. If Ndigbo can attack Gov Fashola the way they have done in the past few days then l can conclude that we do not really know who our friends are. Look at former Gov Orji Uzo Kalu threatening to take Gov Fashola to Court when he could not do anything when his successor threw Igbo in Anambra, Imo, Enugu, and Ebonyi out of Abia Civil Service.

“When a lady Uzoma Okere was brutalized by a Yoruba Naval Officer did any of these empty heads shouting from the rooftops stand up for the young lady? Fashola did! Kidnappings in Lagos are one hundred percent Igbo-driven and yet Gov Fashola has not deported any of them. Our people have been involved in armed robbery, 419, drug trafficking, vandalization of street lights cables etc in Lagos and yet Lagos accomodates them. I can cite some tens of critical interventions Gov Fashola has made on behalf of Ndigbo as someone inside the system. Gov Fashola has reintegrated people with their Kitts and kins in Oyo, Osogbo, some states in the North without too much noise as we see today but Igbo (nkem di iche) must talk without thinking about strategic interest and intelligent objectivity. Dead bodies have been sent severally from a section of the Country in the past three years to Igboland and these Cowards have kept a criminal silence waiting for others to do the job for them. Igbo toy with their destiny. I suggest that real men and women should take up the challenge of redirecting the way Igbo think and reason.”

•Photo shows Joe Igbokwe.

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