Get Ready For Herdsmen In S’East, S’South, IPOB Alerts Govs

Get Ready For Herdsmen In S’East, S’South, IPOB Alerts Govs.

IPOB Writers

Date:01/05/2018 

 

BIAFRANS

 

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has hailed the recently released US State Department report indicting the Federal Government and security agencies over alleged killings of pro-Biafra agitators as a welcome development. While expressing its displeasure over the caliber of sources cited by the report and the omission of casualty figures, the separatist organization in setting the record straight claimed Nigerian security agents had killed a total of 1, 247 of its members since 2016.

The 2017 Country Report on Human Rights Practices released by the U.S. State Department on April 20 indicts the Federal Government for its failure to decisively investigate, curb and punish perpetrators of reported widespread human rights abuse and impunity in the country. The report, particularly, spotlighting extra-judicial killings perpetrated by Nigerian security apparatus––especially the Nigerian Army––specifically mentioned the Shiite and IPOB as victims of such impunity and abuse.

Reacting to the report, IPOB’s media and publicity secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful welcomed the report “insofar as it drew the attention of the civilised world to the heinous atrocities being perpetrated by key actors in the Buhari regime, namely heads of security agencies and Fulani herdsmen.”

He said: “It also confirmed the widely held assumption that all the killings and atrocities taking place in Nigeria, either state sanctioned-like military crackdown on civilian populations (IPOB and Shiite) or the unofficial carnage of terrorists are being undertaken by one ethnic group. The ever-present factor in all the mass killings so far recorded is that they were all perpetrated by one specific ethnic group.”

He reiterated IPOB’s decision to remain peaceful in its approach but warned that continued brutalisation and excessive force might compel them to have a rethink. “We know that after the ethnic cleansing in Benue State, the next target will be the heartland of Biafra and Enugu/Ebonyi to be precise,” he alleged. “It’s an eventuality we must be prepared for because Ohanaeze Ndigbo and South East governors are mere slaves to the north.”

Nevertheless, the group considered the report flawed on many grounds. The report mentioned a possible clash between the army and IPOB members in Abia and Rivers State at the height of Operation Python Dance II sometimes around September 15, 2017, that led to the death of a police officer. “This is factually inaccurate,” said Powerful, “because it was the army that invaded our land to kill us.”

No clash ever took place between security personnel and IPOB, he avowed. “People were running for their dear lives as army opened fire on them.”