IPOB Says Over 1000 Members Have Been Killed, To Activate Self Defense Mode
The IPOB Media and Publicity Officer, Mr. Emma Powerful has warned against the careless killing of its members by security agents, lamenting that over 1,000 members of the group have been publicly and secretly killed since their leader was arrested and detained.
He gave the warning while addressing newsmen in Nnewi after their meeting to review their activities and to determine options that will be followed to check the incessant killing of the members for engaging in peaceful protests. “We wonder what these soldiers and policemen who are killing our innocent members because they embarked on peaceful demonstration to demand the unconditional release of our leader and Director of Radio Biafra Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, are doing in the South East when their marksmanship is needed in the North East to check the activities of the Boko haram insurgents who are killing people on daily basis.
Kanu and emptiness of the APC government
“The case of our leader has exposed the emptiness of APC government in Nigeria and some ex presidents of Nigeria who are supporting the extra judicial killing of harmless IPOB members who have not carried guns or any dangerous weapons for a day. “If the present government of APC in Nigeria is responsible, law abiding, respectful to Nigerian constitution, and the orders of court of competent jurisdiction, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu has no business still being incarcerated.
No IPOB member or anybody should be shot while engaging in peaceful protest but because this is a government of frustrated, confused and power hungry people who never thought that they will ever lead Nigeria for one day, they use intimidation to shoot people as if they are still in the military era. “We know the activities of a former president of Nigeria who has been visiting and interacting with the Abia State Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, on how to deal with IPOB members in Abia state.
The former President has been romancing with the APC and we are looking forward to seeing him declaring for APC. Let him be bold enough to do that instead of working with Abia state Governor to push out IPOB members for their pay masters in APC. We know their role in the killing of our members and very soon we will ask them questions.
“We must make sure that all the past and present Nigerian presidents who are killing our members extra judicially are tried for genocide. The international community is watching. They should remember what happened to the former President of Liberia and his Ivorian counterpart who were killing people while in office, and now nemesis has caught up with them.
They are answering questions on the people they killed and the same thing will happen to these heartless Nigerian leaders who are not anything better than the Boko Haram insurgents because of their approval and order to the security agencies to shoot at sight, IPOB and other Biafra agitators and people who embark on protest to air their grievances,” he said.
The directorate of Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB said it has adopted self-defence mode as enshrined by the relevant acts and declarations of the United Nations, UN, with effect from Wednesday, February 10, this year.
In a press statement issued yesterday, entitled: “Persistent attacks on Biafrans by the Nigerian state: Our rights to self-defence is not activated”, IPOB explained that if Biafrans commence its self-defence, “let no country or world leader attempt to tag us as terrorists because we are not terrorists, rather we are fighting for our survival and from being exterminated from the surface of the earth.”
In the statement jointly signed by their spokespersons, Emma Nmezu and Dr. Clifford Iroanya, IPOB vowed that they will henceforth defend themselves with everything and anything necessary to avoid “the continuous killing of our mothers, fathers, and children.” According to the statement, “This is the time for all Biafrans to rise and defend themselves.
We cannot fold our arms and watch anybody kill us the second time after killing over two million of us in 1968. We have fully and totally activated our rights to self defence.”
