Lawrence Nwimo, Awka
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has described as laughable and malicious the recent allegation attributed to President Muhammadu Buhari that IPOB was involved in pipeline vandalism in oil producing areas of the country.
President Buhari had in an interview with Bloomberg, a foreign media outfit, asserted that members of IPOB are responsible for the vandalization of pipelines in the Niger Delta and asked the nation’s Western allies to designate IPOB as a terrorist organization.
He attributed Nigeria’s inability to meet its OPEC quota in crude production to the criminal activities of the secessionist group in the oil producing region, saying that the group was complicit in damage to pipelines and infrastructure.
In its reaction, however, IPOB said that Europe and America cannot be deceived because they know who the vandals are.
In a press statement signed by the Media and Publicity Secretary of the group, Comrade Emma Powerful, IPOB described the allegation as “laughable, disgraceful and fallacious.”
The statement made available to Ikengaonline read in part: “For Buhari to tell the US and other Western countries that IPOB is responsible for pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta shows how shallow-minded he is. Why should he choose to further advertise his ignorance and the failure of his government in credible intelligence gathering by making such laughable, wide, and untenable allegation?
“Muhammadu Buhari should tell America and other Western countries the locations of pipelines IPOB vandalized. The allegation against IPOB by Buhari is childish because everybody knows that IPOB does not engage in pipeline vandalism. Even the international community knows that IPOB does not involve in such act.
“Maybe the Fulani-controlled Federal Government of Buhari doesn’t know that the West is not daft and uninformed otherwise, he would not have made such embarrassing fact-less claims.
“Buhari should be reminded that his Western audience already know the actual culprits behind pipeline vandalism in Nigeria and who the beneficiaries are.
“What a contradiction and confusion in Buhari’s Nigeria! In case he has forgotten as usual, just last week, his NSCDC (Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps) boss threatened to name high profile Nigerians behind oil theft. Did the NSCDC boss need to issue such a threat assuming IPOB a ‘terror organization’ according to Buhari’s Nigeria is actually the ones behind the crime?
“Buhari should also be reminded that his Western audience already know who is aiding Fulani bandits in their wicked agenda of massacring indigenous Nigerians and taking over their land. The West knows who and how ransom in hard currency is paid to Fulani bandits and terrorists Kidnapping innocent Nigerians, thus enabling them to amass more weapons for their genocidal agenda.”
The group maintained that “Buhari’s anger with it was simply because IPOB remained the only obstacle to the agenda of his Fulani kinsmen to overrun Nigeria and declare it an Islamic State.
“That is why it is only in Nigeria that IPOB, a peaceful movement with presence in over 100 countries, is tagged a terrorist organization”, the statement added.
“Buhari and his kangaroo court delivered a black-market judgment against a peaceful movement seeking freedom for their people, without looking into his Fulani kinsmen’s activities of eliminating non-Fulani in the country. Buhari and his cabals refused to declare Fulani terrorists masquerading as herdsmen manhandling, raping, destroying communities and killing innocent citizens of Nigeria.
“One thing is certain, IPOB will hunt down those terrorists masquerading as herdsmen in Biafran bushes and forests. Whatever allegations they like let them fabricate. We can’t abdicate our divine mandate of defending our ancestral land against Fulani occupation.”
