The Federal Government has said
politically-disgruntled individuals and treasury looters are sponsoring
secession agitators, the Indigenous People of Biafra, to destabilize the
country...
It noted that the group served no other purpose than to achieve such inglorious aim.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said this on Sunday during a press conference in Lagos.
Mohammed stated, “IPOB is being
sponsored by those I will call the coalition of the
politically-disgruntled and the treasury looters. They believe that by
sponsoring this group to destabilise the country and trigger chaos, they
will realise their ambition of escaping justice and then be free to dip
their hands into the nation’s treasury again.
“The past few days have been a trying
one for Nigeria with the activities of the so-called Indigenous People
of Biafra reaching a crescendo and threatening the unity of our dear
nation, Nigeria.
“A rag tag mob that calls itself IPOB
and its gullible supporters felt they could seize a large swathe of the
Nigerian territory, set up parallel military and para-military
organisations, mount road blocks and even confront the Nigerian
military. Their leader openly solicits weapons and incites hatred and
violence.
“Some of the group’s atrocities have
been well documented by the military, which has labelled IPOB a
terrorist organisation. They include the formation of a Biafra Secret
Service, claimed formation of Biafra National Guard, unauthorised
blocking of public access roads; extortion of money from innocent
civilians at illegal roadblocks, and possession and use of weapons
(stones, molotov cocktails, machetes and broken bottles among others) on
a military patrol on 10 September 2017.”
The minister alleged that the group
engaged in physical confrontation with troops at a checkpoint on
September 11, 2017. He noted that during the confrontation, they
attempted to snatch soldiers’ rifles and carry out an attack on a
military checkpoint on September 12, 2017.
He added, “No nation, not Nigeria, will
allow that to happen unchallenged. The fact that Boko Haram festered
because it was not decisively tackled by the immediate past
administration meant we should never again give room for any
organisation to threaten the corporate existence of our country.
“But for its quick and decisive
intervention, IPOB could have set the nation on fire. The governors of
the states in the South-East have wisely proscribed IPOB. This step,
though long overdue, is still commendable,” he stated.
According to him, there is no doubt that
the wounds inflicted on the nation’s psyche by the activities of IPOB
will take some time to heal.
The minister noted, “But while that
happens, Nigerians must understand that IPOB was not set up to fight for
the right of anyone or group, but as a tool to destabilise the nation,
divert attention from the efforts of the Buhari administration and
obliterate the laudable achievements of the administration.
“The activities of IPOB became
heightened with the advent of this administration, and have been
unrelenting since then. If this is coincidental, then that coincidence
is uncanny, at the least. Remember that Nnamdi Kanu, who led a protest
at the Nigeria House in London against Boko Haram insurgency and in
support of Nigeria’s unity under the Jonathan administration, has
suddenly metamorphosed into an IPOB monster, who will rather set the
nation ablaze.
“Has anyone wondered why IPOB decided to
up the ante, so to say, in its violent campaign immediately it was
announced that Nigeria has come out of recession? Now, instead of the
government being given the chance to consolidate on that monumental
achievement, it is being distracted, and the airwaves have been polluted
with the activities of IPOB.”
Besides, he regretted that the good news
of the end of recession and its effects were being replaced with
headlines about IPOB’s ‘show of shame’.
He added, “The self-imposed IPOB leader,
Nnamdi Kanu, is the master of hate speech. No one, including the same
people whose rights he claimed to be championing, escaped his vitriolic
and primitive attacks. We challenge all his sympathisers to scrutinise
his incendiary, divisive and inciting speeches, the name calling and the
derogatory remarks about the nation’s leaders, and then tell the nation
if such do not constitute hate speech.
“Leaders of thought and commentators,
who have shown the inclination to accommodate Kanu and his excesses,
should say if this is what they expect from someone who wants to lead.
“As the bloodied and battered IPOB
staggers around, we must warn the nation against the group’s next line
of action, which is to externalise their lies and propaganda. Now they
are writing to the governments and the national parliaments of some
western nations to give the impression that they are victims of an
ethno-sectarian violence orchestrated by the government, hence they need
protection. This is a blatant lie.
“It is not in the agenda of this
administration to suppress its citizens for whatever reasons. Not even
the excesses of some people on the social media have forced the
government to do anything that will stifle press freedom or freedom of
expression.”
The Federal Government also accused IPOB
of engaging in a massive harvesting of gory videos from the past and
from other lands to hoodwink the public, and in particular the
international community, into believing that its members were victims of
state-sponsored violence.
According to the minister, such videos, which have very high emotive quotient, are circulating on the social media.
He said, “We call on all to subject all
such videos to the greatest scrutiny so as not to be misled. In
particular, we urge the international community not to jump to any
conclusion on the basis of such videos.”
Appealing to the media to show
restraints at this time, he said reporting issues of IPOB, especially
since the military deployed troops in the South-East for its exercise,
tagged Operation Python Dance II, had been sensationalised by a section
of the media.
Stating that IPOB’s machinations had
failed as Nigerians had seen beyond cheap tactics and avoided being
incited against one another, he urged Nigerians to remain vigilant and
resolute to say no to the incendiary and divisive tendencies of IPOB and
its cohorts.
Nobody is sponsoring us, says IPOB
But IPOB’s spokesman, Emma Powerful, told The PUNCH on Sunday that the group was not sponsored by any politician.
Powerful explained that the group’s leader had resisted moves by some unnamed politicians to take control of the group.
Insisting that IPOB funds itself,
Powerful said, “No single individual or group, including politicians,
has the power to sponsor IPOB and the struggle for Biafra independence.
“IPOB is rooted in more than 100 hundred
countries in the world today and IPOB sponsors itself, otherwise
Nigerian politicians would have turned IPOB (members) into political
thugs.
“We know that some politicians want to
come in and destroy this noble cause because they want to control IPOB,
which Nnamdi Kanu rejected.
“There is no politician that can sponsor IPOB.”
Kanu’s sources of finance verifiable –Friend
Also, a social activist and a personal
friend of Kanu, Law Mefor, described the allegations of Mohammed as
far-fetched, saying the IPOB leader’s sources of finance were
verifiable.
Mefor, who claimed to have visited Kanu
in Umuahia not long ago, said people who believed in IPOB’s cause, had
consistently supported the embattled pro-Biafran agitator.
He stated, “I have witnessed it, not
once or twice, people bringing items from food items to money to Kanu to
support what he is doing. If the government is accusing looters, don’t
those looters have bank accounts; can’t their transactions be
monitored? Kanu’s source of money can’t be verified
“The fact of the matter is that Kanu is
not alone in the struggle for Biafra. The struggle is about the
exclusion of Igbo from Nigeria’s political space. Let it be known that
IPOB is the biggest movement today; a movement that has entered an
auto-pilot.”
Mefor, however, said he would support a
united Nigeria if the Federal Government would address Igbo
marginalisation and restructure Nigeria.
“It is very simple. Let the Federal
Government address the marginalisation of the Igbo in Nigeria’s
political equation and restructure the country. I will personally lead a
campaign for ‘Biafra for one Nigeria’. The current structure is not
working and we need to do something about it,” he said.
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