Leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has alleged that he turned down offer by the Federal Government to have Biafra Republic that comprises only five core Igbo-speaking states in the South East.
Kanu made this revelation during a live broadcast in Abia state where he stated the reason behind his decision to turn down the offer.
The IPOB leader said his passion to liberate all oppressed indigenous tribes in the old Eastern region made him to insist on not leaving them behind.
“When I was at Kuje prison the federal government offered to give me Biafra provided I leave other tribes outside the five South East states but I told them I must go with the other oppressed nationalities because I don’t want them to continue suffering subjugation”.
Vanguard reported that he, however, regretted the utterances of some persons from the minority tribes who he said had the wrong notion that the Igbo intend to dominate them in the new republic.
Kanu condemned an alleged utterance by the Ikwere people in Rivers State that the five South East Igbo states should leave them out of the Biafra project.
He warned them and non-Igbo speaking tribes in the Niger Delta region against the danger of opting out of the Biafra Republic.
Kanu said that the fate of any minority tribe that refused to be part of Biafra Republic would be worse than the Hausa’s who have since lost their identify and freedom to the Fulani.
He declared that contrary to misconceptions in some quarters the struggle for Biafra republic was not for the Igbo to subjugate or dominate the minority tribes but to free them from bondage.
The IPOB leader claimed that Biafra lost the civil war because of global conspiracy allegedly championed by the British.
“During the war Britain and Russia put aside their differences and united to support Nigeria against Biafra”.
Kanu claimed that the white people were not supporting Biafra’s struggle for self determination because of their fear that an independent Biafra would become the technology hub of Africa, and ultimately bring civilisation to the black race.
He recalled his encounter with the late Justice P. K Nwokedi, a former aide to Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who told him how Bulgaria declined from supporting Biafra during the civil war “because of their fear of our technological ingenuity.”
“Justice Nwokedi told me in London that when Ojukwu sent him to Bulgaria to seek her support during the war, after narrating the ordeals of our people to the Bulgarian Government officials, they sympathised with him but simply told him that the world cannot afford another Japan in Africa.”