By Favour Goodness
For the umpteenth time, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has washed its hands off incessant killings in the Southeast.
The pro-Biafra group in a statement issued by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, condemned the unending unprovoked attacks.
“We restate our belief in peaceful restoration of Biafra. IPOB has no hands in the senseless attacks going on in our territory. We are freedom seekers and we remain peaceful in our pursuit for freedom of Biafra,” IPOB said.
The group, therefore, frowned at a statement credited to the former Ohanaeze Ndigbo President General, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, asking IPOB to stop killing their people, saying “we see this statement as that of a drowning man who wants to grab anything to stay afloat.”
IPOB asked Nwodo if he had investigated “those who attacked Ajali Police Station and confirmed they were IPOB? Has he also investigated who attacked the convoy of Hon. Chris Azubogu when he was coming back from Awka to Nnewi, where he dumped PDP for APC, and confirmed it was IPOB?”
The group advised the former Ohanaeze PG to “caution politicians like him,” than to be “busy chasing shadows and accusing IPOB.”
Meanwhile, the Biafra Independence Movement (BIM) and Movement for Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) have called on the people of the Southeast “to remain vigilant and resist the moves by the ruling All Progressives Congress-controlled Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari to allow insurgency overrun the country.”
BIM-MASSOB Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Elder Chris Mocha, in a statement issued in Onitsha yesterday, expressed worry that the Igbo are likely to be the worst hit in the event to Islamize Nigeria, particularly the Southeast because they are the major victims of the present Sharia laws being imposed in some states in the North.
“You could recall that before now, some Northern Muslim leaders had been nursing the ambition of transforming Nigeria into an Islamic system of governance and their first daring indication was in 1986, when Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida as president, unilaterally registered the country into Organization of Islamic Countries, OIC,” the group claimed.
It noted that the second daring indication to Islamize and fulanize the country was the refusal by the presidency to come out clean to name and shame the six Nigerians who were listed by the government of United Arab Emirates (UAE) as sponsors of terrorist organizations in the country, accusing the president of not being sincere in the fight against terrorism.
The group also appealed to the Akwa-Ibom State Commissioner of Police (CP), Mr Andrew Amiengheme to release Mr Akaidem Effiong Akpan, who had been reportedly detained in Ikot Akpanabia Divisional headquarters, Uyo, since May this year, for supporting Biafra’s self-determination struggle.
The group said that the couple, a serving policeman and his wife, Mrs Blessing Akpan, are being punished because they were appreciating the untiring efforts and the non-violent methods of Chief Ralph Uwazuruike to achieve Biafra sovereignty through peaceful means.
