THE Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, denied yesterday that
its members were planning to destroy some police stations in Aba, Abia State,
saying the allegation was part of a plan hatched to arrest and detain more
members of the group...
This came as scores of youths yesterday stormed Lagos, to
kick against the country’s dismemberment; urging the Indigenous People of
Biafra (IPOB) and other ethnic groups behind the moves to limit their demands
within the confines of the law, even as they argued that demands could be
achieved through dialogue, rather than through violence which often leads to
loss of lives and property in the country. A statement by IPOB media and
publicity secretary, Emma Powerful, accused Abia State governor, Dr Okezie
Ikpeazu of being part of the plan, adding that the plan was a cover to kidnap
and abduct innocent Biafrans under the pretext that they were the perpetrators
of some heinous crimes in the city. He said: “IPOB has never engaged in any
crime of any sort from its inception to date. There is no police station that
can claim to have received any complaint of lawlessness or crime allegedly
committed by IPOB. “Our rallies and evangelism are all done in full view of the
public and well attended within communities with no single recorded adverse
incident till date. IPOB has never been involved in any retaliatory attacks or
killing of any human being because we believe, along with our ancient values,
that life is a rare gift from God, which is not in the place of man to take.”
Youths decry secession At a gathering organized by a youth group, NaijaDay
Foundation, yesterday, in Lagos, with the theme ‘Significance of peace and
unity in Nigeria’, put in place to commemorate Nigeria’s 57th independence
anniversary, the youths also urged government at all levels to keep their quota
of responsibilities, so as to ensure adherence of peace and unity among
citizens, especially youths. The 2017 Mandela-Washington Fellow and Director,
Prisoners Right Advocacy Initiative (PRAI), Ahmed Adetola-Kazeem, while
addressing the youths, warned agitators to desist from hate speech while
demanding for their rights in the country, just as he cautioned against
overheating the polity with various hate moves. He implored Nigerians not to
share every post on social media because a lot of them were written to cause
discord amongst Nigerians, stressing that every Nigerian needs to be armed with
correct information and shun gullibility. “We all possess innate weapons to
fight intolerance and hatred, let’s use it. Most of the people sponsoring and
leading the clamour for war will jet out of the country if it happens and the
common man who has blindly followed them would be made to suffer,”
Adetola-Kazeem added. He stressed that whenever war occurs in a country, the
nation would metamorphose negatively and may not regain its potentials several
years after the crisis might have ended. “The rich will become poor, children
will become orphans, wives transformed to widows, landlords of palatial homes
will become refugees who will queue for food. “Rather than fighting ourselves,
we must fight that peace may reign. It is impossible for all of us to agree on
the same thing but it is possible for us to be tolerate one another.” For
Publisher, Checkout Magazine, and a United Kingdom (UK) based journalist, Lekan
Fatodu, pocket of violence within the country, which was due to agitations from
the regions for secessions, restructuring and others, indicated that it was
time to make peace a national mantra.“We are aware that Nigerian security
operatives have little or no regard for human life as is their custom and
tradition ably demonstrated over the centuries through a series of well
documented pogroms. “ Igbo governors, who are essentially Hausa Fulani stooges
in government houses across the South East are doing their damned best to turn
global opinion against IPOB. However, civilized nations and countries around
the world know that IPOB under the leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, is not and
can never be a terrorist organization. “The APC government of Nigeria headed by
President Muhammadu Buhari, in collaboration with Governors Dave Umahi, Okezie
Ikpeazu, Willie Obiano and others, is making every effort to tarnish the
impeccable global standing of IPOB. “This latest evil plot, already perfected,
is designed to legitimize even more brutal deaths, arrests, torture and
detention without trial at the hands of Nigerian soldiers and police. Okezie
Ikpeazu, in his jealousy fuelled vendetta against IPOB, has unwittingly turned
hitherto peaceful Abia State to a killing field for blood thirsty Islamic
Jihadists from Arewa North, who are hell bent on spreading Islam to every nook
and cranny of Biafraland. “IPOB is therefore calling on all conscientious and
civilized men and women, lovers of freedom, the international community especially
USA, EU, Britain, Russia and France, to intervene to stop this horrendous
ethnic cleansing going on in Abia State, for the sake of humanity. “The scale
of killings going on is a tragedy of immense proportions and until the world
brings this to a halt, injustice will continue to reign supreme in Nigeria.”
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