June 12 casualties: Group seeks compensation, says Ndigbo most affected ONITSHA An Igbo socio-cultural group, Ndigbo United

d Assembly, (NUA) has stated that Ndigbo were the most casualties of the violence that greeted the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election believed to have been won by Chief M.K.O Abiola. NUA therefore called on the federal government to intensify efforts towards compensating Ndigbo in various ways such as dredging of River Niger, building of the second Niger bridge and possibly conceding the presidency to them, this time around. Commenting on the June 12 saga, shortly after their executive meeting in Onitsha, yesterday, the President-General of NUA, Sir Peter Okala said that shortly after the annulment of the presidential election that returned late MKO Abiola as President-Elect, Ndigbo were slaughtered in various Western parts of the country. Ndigbo United Assembly, (NUA), the only mouthpiece of Ndigbo genuinely fighting for the liberation and against the marginalization of the South East is aptly taking another look at the June 12 saga, from the perspective that it was our brothers and sisters that were massacred in some parts of the country, Okala further stated. Each time such thing erupted in the country, Ndigbo are always at the receiving end. To some extent, I can authoritatively say that the June 12 was made against Ndigbo because history has been kind to us. It was during the said election presided over by an Igbo man, Prof. Humphrey Nwosu that Nigeria ever had free and fair election. However, it was annulled by anti-Igbo elements and our brothers in the West, out of anger descended on Ndigbo and in the process, Igbos lost their lives and investments and property, he said. Sir Okala also said he noted with nostalgia how thousands of Igbos were displaced during the crisis in the West which he called Oso Abiola and how many of them lost their lives and many of them never recovered from the shock. However, the group further called for the sack of the Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar over what they called fraud in the ongoing dredging of lower River Niger and the commencement of activities at the Onitsha River Port many months after President Goodluck Jonathan commissioned it. NUA also challenged South East Governors to account for the ecological funds they have collected from the Ecological Office with a view to tackling ecological disasters in various parts of the zone, adding that the zone is gradually caving in to erosion and other natural disaster. We are calling for the sack of the Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar for his failure to tell Ndigbo the truth concerning the dredging of River Niger because we have monitored the contract and found out that it was all sham and nothing is going on there which we believe is helping to further cripple economy of Ndigbo.