Following allegations of ethnic cleansing of the indigenous people of Owerri levelled against the State government by Prof Dr.Philip Njemanze, the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, has written to the medical doctor, urging him “to follow up the matter at the Court by using the instrumentality of the court to seek redress against the State Government”
The Commission stated that it has also written a letter to the Inspector General of Police, IGP, “to cause a thorough investigation into the death of Somotochukwu Ibeanusi and avail the Commission of the report”
Njemanze, on behalf of Owerri Indigenous People, wrote to the Commission, and the International Criminal Court, ICC, over what he described as “ethnic cleansing of Owerri people”
The 13 page letter was backed with evidence and exhibits over the demolition of the ancestral Eke Ukwu Owerri market, the Mbari Centre, the land called 3R residential layout at Onitsha Road.
It noted that “the demolition, included total extermination of cultural symbols, disposession of lands, forced asimilation, and forced resettlememt from ancestral homes”