The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has said Nigeria’s security agencies and their operatives are behind the perennial attacks and wanton killings in south east part of the country
This is as the separatist group warned against pointing accusing fingers at the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi, regarding the recent attack on the US convoy in Anambra State.
In a statement on Sunday, Spokesperson of the group Emma Powerful, warned those linking Obi to the incident to desist from the allegation, which it has described as a mere demonization by those it noted does not want him to succeed.
Powerful said Obi’s mandate is divine and can never be truncated by anyone.
While also denying that his members were part of the attack as alleged by the Nigeria security, Powerful said “It is important to note that those accusing IPOB of being behind the attack on the US Embassy convoy are the real masterminders.
He alleged that those behind it were also responsible for killing most of its innocent members in the South East.
“Their quest to blackmail IPOB globally has led them into assassinating innocent people in Biafra Land. For instance, these government agents assassinated Gulak in Owerri, and they assassinated an army couple in an undisclosed location in Biafra.
“They assassinated Dr. Akunyili in Anambra (late Dora Akunyili’s husband). In all these and many more of the state-sponsored murder cases, IPOB was accused, and to date, police never investigated any of them.”
Powerful also argued that its intelligence unit saved ex-British High Commissioner Catriona Laing in 2022 from being killed when she proposed visiting the country.
“If not for the Intel from IPOB M-Branch on the plans to assassinate ex-British High Commissioner, Catriona Laing, in 2022 and the warning from IPOB leadership for her not to visit South East, they would have assassinated her too.
“This recent attack on the US Embassy convoy is likely another state-sponsored attack to discredit the peaceful IPOB movement and to make South East more unsafe for investors to continue coming to Biafra to invest. Again, they are late because our call for investors has already started yielding fruit.
And warning those linking Obi to the US envoy attack, Powerful said: “Those linking Peter Obi to these attacks on US Embassy Convoy are the ones that fingers are pointing to regarding the crisis happening in the south East region.
“There is no way they can link innocent Peter Obi to it because he is from Anambra State. Does that mean that all the attacks happening in Adamawa State and Katsina State were caused by Atiku Abubakar and the Buhari in Aso Rock, respectively?
“No matter how ESN security work is, it can never be deemed good or right by the Nigerian government and its security agents. What is the justification to link Peter Obi to the criminalities going on in the Southeast?
“Can it also be said that all the banditry and terrorism happening in Northern Nigeria is masterminded by their criminal politicians whose evidence shows that they aid and abet terrorists?
“We are aware that several terrorist and bandit groups in the North are sponsored by the unscrupulous elements around them there. We should be asking, why are they mentioning Peter Obi?
“Is it because he summoned up the courage to contest their selection process called an election and won by a landslide? They are now robbing him of the mandate given to him by the people of Nigeria because he is an Igbo man.
“They are busy exposing their cluelessness in desperation to demonize IPOB. America has one of the most sophisticated intelligence in the world and can not be deceived by Alamajiris in the government at Abuja. We expect the US government to carry out an independent investigation into the attack.”