We lost 200 to insurgents – Igbo group

The Igbo Welfare Association, a socio-cultural association for indigenes of the five south-eastern states currently residing in Borno State on Sunday lamented that the Boko Haram insurgency had claimed the lives of over 200 Igbo till date.

The group also alleged that the ethnic group had lost property worth millions of naira to the crisis, which started in 2009.

The President-General of IWA in Borno State, Chief Maclaw Nwaogu, said this in his speech at the inauguration of the new executives of the association and its award ceremony on Saturday in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

Nwaogu appealed to Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima to look into the plight of widows and orphans of Ndigbo and other non-indigenes, some of whom he said had to migrate out of the state but were still suffering destitution as a result of the loss of their breadwinners to the Boko Haram insurgency.

He also called on the governor to fulfil his promise of renovating the association’s hall, which was vandalised by the insurgents.

He said, “It is pertinent to bring to your notice that internally displaced people of Igbo extraction are been catered for by Igbo Welfare Association. We are appealing to your government to help us remedy the situation.

“There is no gain saying the fact that the insurrection in the North-East has brought lull into our activities, but under this regime, working together with all and sundry will be given the needed boost.”