TheNewsGuru

Tag: IPOB

  • IPOB lauds Yoruba leaders for speaking against military invasion of South-East

    The Indigenous People of Biafra has commended Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere for its stance against Operation Python Dance in the South-East.

    In a statement on Monday, Emma Powerful, spokesman of IPOB, thanked Afenifere “for their firm and decisive stance against the overwhelming tide of tyrannical oppression and genocide against the people of Biafra”.

    “The Afenifere and Yoruba council of elders and other outspoken leaders of south-west collective and individual condemnation of the Operation Python Dance II, staged by the present All Progressives Congress (APC) regime to suppress legitimate agitation for freedom through intimidation, slaughter of the innocent and military occupation has earned them an enduring legacy which history will never forget,” the statement by Powerful read.

    “IPOB under Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is not disturbed by the terrorising activities of the present administration against his members, but maintained that it must achieve Biafra through non-violence approached we have maintained.

    “We, the Indigenous People of Biafra worldwide under the command and leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu commend and thank the apex Yoruba socio-cultural group Afenifere, Yoruba elders council and other outspoken leaders from the west, for their firm and decisive stance against the overwhelming tide of tyrannical oppression and genocide against the people of Biafra.

    “You rose up to condemn evil and their supporting well-oiled propaganda machinery that sought to turn the truth upside down and make people believe that light is now darkness and darkness light.

    “Your collective and individual condemnation of the Operation Python Dance II, staged by the present APC regime to suppress legitimate agitation for freedom through intimidation, slaughter of the innocent and military occupation has earned you an enduring legacy which history will never forget.”

    He said by speaking in their defence, Afenifere has shown that agitation is not a crime.

    “We also commend those men and women of good conscience from across all ethnic divides in Nigeria and across the globe that condemned the genocidal campaign of this Buhari regime against innocent civilian populations across Biafra land,” it read.

    “With this public display of courage, we are hopeful that many more courageous men and women across West Africa and Africa, in general, will rise up against this APC tyranny and oppression in black Africa as other races have managed to do.

    “With this, IPOB worldwide will remain steadfast and committed to the pursuit of the finest ideals of liberation to set free all oppressed and marginalised people in Nigeria and beyond.

    “If IPOB worldwide is a terrorist organisation, all the freedom fighting groups in the world are terrorist groups. We must all stand firm now to confront and challenge this oppressive dictatorial regime of the present APC government because ultimately power belongs to the people not to the bigoted few.”

  • News Hour: EFCC uncover Nigerian operating IPOB’s foreign accounts in Paris I TNGtv

  • We are unknown to law, proscription order cannot stand – IPOB

    The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, on Friday has said it is an unknown entity to law and the recently proscribed order by the military cannot stand.

    The group, therefore, asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to set aside the orders proscribing it and designating it as a terrorist group.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the Acting Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Abdu Kafarati, had, on Wednesday, issued the proscription order upon an ex parte application by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami.

    But in a motion filed by IPOB’s lawyer, Mr. Ifeanyi Ejiofor, before the same judge on Friday, the group contended that the proscription order was unconstitutional.

    The motion was anchored on 13 grounds, first of which was that the proscription order was made without jurisdiction, “as the order was granted against an entity unknown to law.”

    The grounds of the application read in part, “That the ex parte order made on the 20th day of September 2017 by this Honorable Court was made without jurisdiction, as the order was granted against an entity unknown to law.

    “That there is a clear suppression and misrepresentation of facts in the Attorney General’s Affidavit evidence, pursuance to which the Order was granted.

    “That the Order is unconstitutional, as it was made in clear violation of the constitutionally guaranteed right of the Indigenous People of Biafra to self determination; Article 20(1) of the Africa Charter on Human & Peoples Rights, now domesticated into our Law under (Ratification and Enforcement Act) (Cap 10) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990; Right to fair hearing, Right to freedoms of expression, and the press and Rights to peaceful Assembly and Association; clearly provided for under Sections 36, 39 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as (Amended) 2011.

    “That a declaratory order cannot be made pursuant to an ex parte Application, without hearing from the party against whom the order was made.

    “The Indigenous People of Biafra who are majorly of Igbo extraction, have no history of violence in the exercise of their right to self determination.”

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki also recently declared the proscription of the group as unconstitutional.

  • We’ll proscribe other groups operating like IPOB – FG

    The Presidency, on Thursday, declared that it will proscribe other secessionist groups operating like the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.

    This was revealed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu this during a live television programme titled, ‘Sunrise Daily’ on Channels Television.

    Shehu said IPOB operated like Boko Haram by declaring an independent state and hoisting a foreign flag on Nigerian soil.

    He also accused the secessionist group of printing Biafran currency; issuing Biafran passports and extorting money from people under the guise of compulsory tax collection.

    When asked what the Federal Government would do if a similar group emerged following the proscription of IPOB, Shehu said, “If another group comes up and produces passports and produces currency and sets up an intelligence agency and a para-military organisation of sorts, the law will apply to them as it did to IPOB.”

    The President’s spokesman said groups like the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, would not need to be proscribed because they were not as violent and unruly as IPOB.

    He said the Arewa youths, who issued a notice to quit to Igbo, were not given the IPOB treatment because they had withdrawn their threat and had succumbed to the voice of reason.

    Shehu, however, said the same could not be said of IPOB.

    The President’s aide also rubbished arguments that the Federal Government was treating the herdsmen crisis with kid gloves.

    He said, “There is a criminal activity and terrorist activity. Yes, the Fulani herdsmen are a criminal gang and they are being dealt with in accordance with the law but IPOB, like Boko Haram, has carved out a territory as a sovereign state and they have raised concerns in Kogi and Benue and have boasted that they will take over Bayelsa and Rivers.

    “That was exactly what Boko Haram did and the taxation system and hoisting of flags. This is not acceptable.”

    When asked why the government was able to quickly identify the source of IPOB’s funding but had failed to trace that of Boko Haram, Shehu said IPOB’s case was easier because they usually canvassed funds openly.

    He said, “Funding is canvassed for IPOB openly in some Western countries and traders of Nigerian origin in these countries send money back home. Why is the government not able to identify the source of funding for Boko Haram?

    “It is perhaps more complicating than we are seeing and if you look at the President’s message at the United Nations, he asked for the funding of Boko Haram be traced and blocked.”

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the federal government recently obtained a court order authenticating the proscription of IPOB. The military and the South East Governors had also earlier outlawed the group describing their activities as illegal.

  • News Hour: France, UK behind funding, escalation of IPOB crisis, says FG I TNGtv

  • France, UK reply FG, say ‘We are not behind funding, escalation of IPOB crisis’

    Sequel to a statement credited to the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed that the governments of France and United Kingdom are funding the activities of Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, the representatives of both governments in Nigeria have denied having a hand in the crisis.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the Minister on Wednesday said while France was funding the separatist group, the United Kingdom was providing an operating space for its broadcast arm.

    In his words: “Let me tell you, the financial headquarters is in France, we know, but you see, can you as a government stop sending money to your parents? You have to block the sources of finance that is what I said recently.

    “It is incontrovertible that some people in the diaspora contribute money to IPOB. We know this as a fact. Again, there are a few knotty diplomatic issues which you need to skip. For instance, who does not know that the IPOB internal radio is located in London? We know the diplomatic moves we have been taking and approaching the UK, all the damage it has done; but they don’t see it that way. For them, it is about freedom of expression.

    “If we have a person in Nigeria openly soliciting arms to come and fight the UK, what would you think of it. Would you consider that freedom of expression? And this is a country that also has had a history; what did the Irish Repubublican Army (IRA) do to be labelled a terrorist organisation? They were planting bombs, they were fighting the British army.

    “I don’t want any diplomatic row. We know for a fact where the funding is coming from and we are going to stop them but it is difficult to stop them and we have been working on it and we will not stop.”

    However, in a swift reaction, both countries in a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday said they are strongly in support of Nigeria’s unity.

    The French government denied any knowledge of IPOB presence in its country, saying it is strongly in support of Nigeria’s unity.

    This Political Counsellor, Embassy of France in Nigeria, Mr. Claude Abily, said the statement was shocking to the French government.

    Abily said his country has been cooperating with Nigeria in the area of security.

    The statement reads: “The Embassy of France was surprised by the statement made yesterday (Wednesday) by the Minister of Information and Culture indicating that the ‘financial headquarters’ of IPOB was in France.

    “We don’t have any knowledge of a particular presence of IPOB in France and the Nigerian authorities never got in touch with the Embassy on this point.

    “We stand ready to examine any information which could support this statement.

    “Furthermore, we would like to reiterate that France actively cooperates with Nigeria in the field of security and that we strongly support the unity of the country.”

    On its part, the British government said it was not aware of any representation from its Nigerian counterpart about Radio Biafra.

    The statement reads: “The UK is not aware of any representation from the Nigerian government about Radio Biafra. Were we to receive any such request, we would of course consider it carefully on the basis of the available evidence, recognising that freedom of speech and expression carries responsibilities.”

  • Kanu, Biafra and its disciples – Azu Ishiekwene

    By Azu Ishiekwene

    When the founder of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Ralph Uwazuruike, told The Interview in August that the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, was being used to destroy Biafra, I thought it was their private fight playing out at last.

    In the early days of MASSOB when Uwazuruike was planning to start Radio Biafra in the UK, he had reluctantly recruited Kanu to run the shop. One thing led to another and along the way the ambitious young Kanu had his own ideas. He supplanted his boss and took charge.

    He has grown from pirate radio boy to something of a rock star and appears well underway to raising his own army, a fantasy that might, in the end, prove Uwazuruike right.

    Before Kanu went into hiding last week, he had started reviewing a “guard of honour” as part of his daily routine. He announced the formation of the Biafra Secret Service (BSS) when he was receiving Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, a disciple who, after posting his bail bond, ought to have taken the young man to the hospital.

    With support from a section of the Igbo elite led, surprisingly, by constitutional lawyer, Ben Nwabueze, Kanu has gone much farther since he formed the BSS. He paraded a Turkish tout who was supposed to have endorsed the Biafra state and deluded himself into believing that it is just a matter of time before other foreign governments will line up behind his ambition.

    If he was in too much hurry to read what happened to Biafra 1 when Odumegwu Ojukwu needed global support, he should have simply Googled South Sudan and Eritrea for a current version of treachery and international politics.

    Kanu has rallied hundreds of young people to his cause and managed to sell them on a fool’s paradise – a promise of heaven on earth, once Biafra is realised.

    Regrettably, he has worked his supporters to a lunatic fringe; and the horrific videos from Aba and other parts of the South East in circulation last week showed how dangerously close the country was to the outbreak of another major bloody conflict.

    We can argue all we want about who cast the first stone – IPOB supporters or soldiers deployed in the operation code-named Python Dance. Much has also been said about the propriety and motive for the deployment of the soldiers and whether or not IPOB should be banned.

    Anyone who has been following Kanu recently, anyone who has listened to him demand the excision of parts of the country to make up his Biafra fantasy or heard him say it would not take him two weeks overrun Sokoto in the event of a war; anyone who has listened to his vile and inflammatory comments about those who don’t agree with him or other ethnic nationalities, and still thinks he’s just a wayward Boys Scout leader is free to sign up, just like Abaribe and co have done.

    But no responsible government will fold its hands and allow the breakdown of law and order or watch aggrieved persons take the law into their own hands.

    There were incidents of serious concern on both sides last week: the video of soldiers making unarmed youths roll in the mud and lie facedown at gunpoint in the mud or the video of suspected IPOB members in secret locations beating some folks believed to be from the North with planks and frisking commercial vehicles for “non-Biafrans” were like scenes from the early stages the Rwandan war.

    These were extremely dangerous and frightening spectacles, and as they unfolded, Kanu the pirate radio warrior, who had been praying for war, was busy looking for a place to hide. The attitude of the soldiers identified in the video was deplorable and should be punished; but God knows that if soldiers had not been deployed it would have been an answer to Kanu’s prayer for mayhem.

    If you think it’s an overstatement, then you haven’t seen the videos yet.

    We must, by all means avoid a repeat of Odi (1999) and Zaki-Biam (2001), where the deployment of troops after gangs clashed with the military led to the sacking of several villages and the killing of over 200 civilians. But those who are egging Kanu on must keep in mind that if they start a bush fire they can never tell how it would end.

    Is there any merit in Kanu’s claim that the Igbo have been marginalised and unfairly treated, especially under President Muhammadu Buhari?

    Sure. Buhari is the only presidential candidate in recent memory who would win an election with near-zero support from two major blocks – the South East and the South South. He should have seized the moment to broaden his base and run an inclusive government.

    He didn’t. Yet, if Kanu thinks only Igbos are marginalised he only needs to look at Buhari’s “other room” to see that Igbos are in good company. Before Kanu formed his BSS, Aisha Buhari had sounded a public warning that her husband, the President, risked rebellion in the ruling All Progressives Congress by leaving those who worked to elect him out in the cold. She obviously felt marginalised.

    Discontent inside the ruling APC is so real and touchable that if an elective convention was held today, it is uncertain that Buhari would win; yet he has surrounded himself with a few influential persons who will neither let him see the danger that he is in nor permit steps that could save him or his government. Buhari is a victim of his own choice.

    It’s OK if Kanu or his supporters think that they are at the worst end of a bad deal. But he must keep in mind that the victims of the sort of mindless violence sparked off by his insane rhetoric are ordinary people – across ethnic lines – just trying to eke out a living.

    The Igbos have done well for themselves and continue to well in spite of government. They have, over the years, built a heritage that should shame those who think that you can keep a people down by exclusion and spite. They don’t need Kanu to remind them of their achievements and the great work that still lies ahead.

    Self-determination is a long, arduous and often costly journey. The Scots have been at it since 1853, the Catalans since 1922, and the people of Western Sahara for nearly four decades now. If Kanu is mad about achieving Biafra in his own lifetime as his wife said in a newspaper interview, those who love him should help him find a method for his madness or keep him on a leash.

    I don’t subscribe to the view that anything is settled or that the current federal structure is serving citizens well. Those pretending otherwise know they’re deceiving themselves.

    While the contest of ideas continues, however, I agree with the senior advocate Femi Falana, that serious state governments can, starting with matters that affect their residents the most, claw back acres of autonomy lost to Abuja within the ambit of the law. To act outside that ambit is to invite anarchy.

    Ishiekwene is the MD/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview magazine and board member of the Paris-based Global Editors Network

  • France, United Kingdom behind funding, escalation of IPOB crisis – FG

    The Federal Government has accused the governments of France and United Kingdom of sponsoring the recent agitations by the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.

    This was revealed on Wednesday by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

    Mohammed explained that the leader of the group, Nnamdi Kanu’s belligerent attitude and the violence the group employed could not be overlooked by any government.

    In his words: “Let me tell you, the financial headquarters is in France, we know, but you see, can you as a government stop sending money to your parents? You have to block the sources of finance that is what I said recently.

    “It is incontrovertible that some people in the diaspora contribute money to IPOB. We know this as a fact. Again, there are a few knotty diplomatic issues which you need to skip. For instance, who does not know that the IPOB internal radio is located in London? We know the diplomatic moves we have been taking and approaching the UK, all the damage it has done; but they don’t see it that way. For them, it is about freedom of expression.

    “If we have a person in Nigeria openly soliciting arms to come and fight the UK, what would you think of it. Would you consider that freedom of expression? And this is a country that also has had a history; what did the Irish Repubublican Army (IRA) do to be labelled a terrorist organisation? They were planting bombs, they were fighting the British army.

    “I don’t want any diplomatic row. We know for a fact where the funding is coming from and we are going to stop them but it is difficult to stop them and we have been working on it and we will not stop.”

    On those financing IPOB, the minister said: “We have the records; we know IPOB collects money from many people from the diaspora, they collect money from many people in Nigeria. They collect money from some foreign countries; this is clear.

    ”I think this is not rocket science. Any treasury looter would do everything possible to distract the government. If by any act, God forbid it, Nigeria is today engulfed in war, and Nigeria is now involved in trying to quell unrest, will the courts be spared? What would be the first priority of government? It will be to quell that riot, so it is a way of distraction to ensure that government is not focused.

    Mohammed added: “Let me state clearly that it is within the rights of individuals or groups to seek self-determination. But this pursuit has to be non-violent. Where any group crosses the line by engaging in violence, it risks being cut to size and that’s exactly what has happened to IPOB. I am not interested in the semantics or legality of troops deployment or the proscription of IPOB. All I know is that IPOB has engaged in terrorist activities, viz: Setting up parallel military and paramilitary organisations, clashing with the national army and attempting to seize rifles from soldiers, using weapons, such as machetes, molotov cocktails and sticks and mounting roadblocks to extort money from people, among others.

    “To those who have engaged in semantics or legality, I ask: which country in the world will tolerate those activities I have listed above? Which national army will look the other way when it is being attacked by a band of thugs?

    “For those who are fixated with legality, I have good news for them: President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the process of proscribing IPOB, and the procedure is on as I speak. But I ask, if the President had been overly concerned with legality, where would Nigeria have been today? If attacks in the South-east had attracted reprisals elsewhere in the country, what would have happened?

    “But for the quick action of governors in the South-east and the North, there would have been a conflagration of immense proportions.”

    Mohammed praised the South-east governors for making it clear to IPOB that it has no support for its violent campaign.

    “By their action, the governors have cut off the oxygen that IPOB needs to survive. If the elected governors of all the states in the South-east have banned the activities of IPOB, who then is the organisation fighting for?

    “I did state, during my earlier interactions, that IPOB is a contraption against the Buhari Administration, and that it is being sponsored by those I call the Coalition of the Politically-Disgruntled and the Treasury Looters. I stand by that statement despite the noise emanating from the usual suspects. To quote the title of a James Hadley Chase novel, The Guilty Are Afraid, I will add: The guilty are always overly agitated. Good for them.”

    The minister went on: “I think anybody who has watched Nnamdi Kanu’s videos anywhere he goes to, he openly solicits for arms and for funds. I have a lot of quotations from him as to the violence intention of IPOB; in one of his videos, he said if he is arrested, his boys should burn down the country, the same Kanu went on television a few days ago saying he was sleeping at about 4:30pm in his house in Umuahia and then some solders were making noise they were disturbing his sleep and his boys stopped them.

    “I ask him which country in the world would tolerate this. Unfortunately, Nigerians, we have short memories, at times, or we intend to be very mischievous because this thing is being turned into the North is persecuting the Southeast or Muslims persecuting Christians. We have forgotten that in 1983 there was a group called Maitasine in Kano, they were crushed by the Shagari government, they were Muslims and northerners.

    “When they relocated to Burukutu they were again crushed by Shagari. When Buhari became Head of State, the same Maitasine raised their heads, he chased them far into the Chad Republic as then Head of State, I remember that time he was accused by America of trying to expand Ghadafi’s agenda.

    “Abacha in his own time dealt also with Maitasine and he was a Muslim. President Umaru Yar Adua in 2010 was on his way to the airport when he got a report about Boko Haram; he sent the army to go and destroy them; these were Muslims from the North dealing with essentially Islamic Muslim insurgencies.

    “Anything about insurgence or terrorists act you don’t think about religion, you don’t think about ethnicity, you think about the unity of the country.

    “But for me, do you want the President to wait for this to be put into law before you take action and stop looting or killing. Where will Nigeria be today if there is conflagration in Lagos or Kano? Like the Governor of Abia said yesterday, there are about 11million Igbo living outside the Southeast; that is not a small number; it’s not a joke,” he said.

    In the minister’s view “Nigeria has been very lucky,as there would have been massive bloodshed if reprisals had taken place outside the Southeast and it didn’t take place because our traditional rulers, our governors and other leaders went out to pacify people and the kind of stories that has been trending on the social media has not helped things.” “As a matter of fact, there was one stating that a major general had been killed, not knowing that it was a retired major that was killed in Benue state over land matters; that would have set the entire country ablaze.”

    He spoke of how the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister mobilised all the 17 graded traditional chiefs and emirs in Abuja to meet with all the stakeholders to prevent reprisal attacks.

    “And they think it’s a joke; you can imagine what would have happened if the people of Kano or Kaduna had started retaliation. So, we are in a very dangerous situation and actually we are sitting on a keg of gunpowder. The peace that you are seeing is deceptive. We must continue to work on it and we must continue to counter this very untrue narrative.

    “Is there anybody here who can tell me which part of Nigeria genocide is taking place it is not true but of course we are in the era of fake news and artificial intelligence where you can make a video of what is happening in Iraq super impose pictures in Nigeria and voices and send it. People are gullible, including some foreign countries.”

    According to him, the Buhari administration will never stifle anybody’s freedom of expression.

    Mohammed said: “On the basis of that, we have heard some funny bones saying that Nigeria should be expelled from the United Nations because they are perpetuating genocide. This government will not stifle anybody’s freedom of expression, but when you cross the line for the sake of national unity we won’t allow you.”

    On Buhari’s approval of the IPOB proscription, Mohammed said: “There is a procedure for proscription. The President must sign the proclamation after which the Attorney General will follow the procedure which he is doing.”