Ohanaeze reacts to threat by Canada-based Nigerian woman to poison Yoruba, Benin people

The Ohanaeze Ndigbo says the Canada-based Nigerian woman who called for the mass killing of the Yoruba and Benin people in Canada is not Igbo.

The woman, identified as Amaka Sunnberger, is heard in a viral video threatening to poison any Yoruba or Benin person she came across at her workplace.

“Record me very well; it’s time to start poisoning the Yoruba and the Benin. Put poison for all una food for work. Put poison for una water, make una dey kpai one by one,” the woman said in Pidgin English.

It appeared she made the comment during a virtual meeting on TikTok. Other voices could be heard interjecting and prodding her. The woman claimed that her comment was in response to the “hate” against the Igbo.

“I want make Ndi Igbo get that heart of wickedness. Una too dey quiet,” the woman said, addressing other participants. “Enough is enough! If you have any means of kpaing them, kpai them commot for road.”

Abike Dabiri, the chairperson of a federal agency, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, disclosed on Wednesday that a group of Nigerians in Canada were reporting the woman to the Canadian authorities.

Ohanaeze reacts

The Ohanaeze Ndigbo has, however, said there was no sufficient evidence that the woman was Igbo, adding that she did not in any way portray the Igbo character of thoughtfulness, discretion, self-censure and equanimity.

Alex Ogbonnia, the Ohanaeze’s spokesperson, said this in a statement on Wednesday in Enugu. He described the woman as a “miscreant”.

Mr Ogbonnia said Ohanaeze have received calls from prominent Nigerians who expressed fears on the possibility of some persons carrying out the threats.

“It therefore becomes imperative for Ohanaeze to respond, especially when the National Publicity Secretary of the Afenifere, Mr Jare Ajayi, forwarded the clip and requested for prompt action.

“There is no Igbo man or woman that will contemplate throwing a stone in a full market for fear of who shall be the victim as the Igbo travel more than any ethnic group in Africa.

“They also create homes away from home wherever they are found. They mix up or integrate with the local community and contribute to developing every community they find themselves.

“Based on the foregoing, two major derivatives emerge: if one should poison food in Lagos or Ibadan or Benin, is there any guarantee that the first victim will not be Igbo?” Mr Ogbonnia said.

The Ohanaeze’s spokesperson said the woman in the video must be a “depressed drowning ethnic bigot, obsessed by the negative side of history and unflinching satanic in orchestration”.

He disclosed that the Secretary-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Okey Emuchay, has condemned the video.

According to him, Mr Emuchay vehemently condemned both the video content and the perpetrator as a mischief-maker.

“They are the merchant of woes who deploy despicable and incendiary rhetoric to create ethnic mistrust and conflicts where none exists.

“Ohanaeze seizes this opportunity to enlighten the younger generations that the Igbo, Edo and Yoruba share a lot in common. We share in cultural affinity, cosmology, morphology, and hospitality.

“The age-long inter-marriages between the Igbo, Yoruba and Edo have produced well accomplished great grandchildren,” he said.

He, therefore, assured the Afenifere, the entire Yoruba and Edo “brothers” that the threat from the depraved mind should be ignored as “idiotic, meaningless and vacuous”.

“We add that, throughout history, proposals by the maladjusted are always dead on arrival.

“We use this opportunity to call on the security agencies in Nigeria to trace the perpetrators of this macabre dance to face the full weight of the law,” he said.

(NAN)