Chukwudike Ndubeze, Awka
The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has rejected move by the Federal Government to name the Onitsha second Niger Bridge after President Muhammadu Buhari.
The group registered their protest in a statement issued on Wednesday by the IPOB spokesman, Emma Powerful, who stated that the bridge should be named after Chinua Achebe, late Dora Akunyiri, Joe Achuzia or other accomplished Igbo patriots, and not Buhari.
Powerful made this call in response to a statement by Buhari’s Personal Assistant on New Media, Bashir Ahmad, that the Second Niger Bridge has been named after the President.
The statement made available to Ikengaonline read in part:“The attention of the global movement and family of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) under the command and leadership of our great leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has been drawn to the laughable plan by the Fulani-controlled Federal Government of Nigeria to name the second Niger Bridge after President Muhammadu Buhari by Fulani-controlled Federal Government.
“We wish to restate our position on this and reject naming the second Niger bridge after the name of a Fulani man who came to power and completely sidelined our people. Under his watch, our youths have been slaughtered by security agents with reckless abandon. Under his watch, terrorists masquerading as Fulani herdsmen have invaded our communities killing innocent men and women after destroying our farms with their cows. These jihadists have raped our mothers and sisters and spread insecurity across our land. How can a man who supervised all these pains on our people be rewarded with immortalising his name among us?
“IPOB is vehemently opposed to naming the second Niger Bridge after Buhari. The bridge should rather be called ACHUZIA BRIDGE or other accomplished Igbo patriots. No Igboman has been named after any big project in the North.”
The statement further refuted claims that the IPOB is scheming to disrupt the construction of the bridge.
“Again, we want to debunk the allegation by Fashola that IPOB disturbed the construction of the second Niger Bridge. This is another lie from the pit of hell. We want to challenge Fashola to substantiate his claims. Did IPOB in any way physically interfere with the construction of the bridge by either directly or indirectly hindering any worker either foreign or local handling the project? Fashola should know that we don’t have his time. He should face his job and not dare us because he is too little to dance to our music.”
