The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has expressed its willingness to collaborate with local security outfits in tackling criminal elements and killer herdsmen in the South-East.
The group in a statement issued on Monday by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, however, said it would not fold its hands and watch security outfits kill and dehumanize innocent Ndigbos in the name of fighting criminals.
IPOB also accused politicians in the South-East of sponsoring criminals in the region.
The statement read: “The global family and movement of IPOB worldwide under the command of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu wish to reiterate our position to collaborate where necessary to drive away criminal elements and killer herdsmen from the South-East.
“For the record, IPOB is against every form of criminality and shall collaborate where necessary with local security outfits to drive away criminals sponsored by politicians, who are the people responsible for the orgy of crime and insecurity in Igboland.
“The mission of these Igbo governors/politicians, driven primarily by envy and jealousy towards Mazi Nnamdi Kanu because of the popularity and global reach of IPOB, is to collaborate with historic enemies of the Igbo race to destroy IPOB, disband ESN and compel Mazi Kanu to abandon his God-given mandate to lead the Biafran peoples to freedom through a UN-supervised referendum. Their plans will never work.
“The desperate and shameful attempt by these political charlatans to attach every single incident of criminality or insecurity to ESN is idiotic and devoid of any logic.
“If ESN is responsible for insecurity, how come insecurity did not start in 2020 when ESN was created? Again we ask, how come insecurity did not start since 2012 when IPOB was formed?
“Insecurity was introduced into Igboland as a tool with which to blackmail IPOB to disband ESN and ultimately pressure Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to give up his quest for Biafra restoration through the ballot box. Only the gullible and ignorant will be deceived by this state-sponsored and well-funded demonisation propaganda against IPOB, ESN and Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
“The same politicians and beneficiaries of insecurity in the security agencies, running around and yapping about insecurity and linking it to IPOB and/or ESN are the same people that raised the criminal in Finland whom they tried to use to infiltrate and ridicule IPOB’s legitimate quest for freedom.
“ESN was formed in 2020, insecurity started in 2022, what was ESN doing between 2020 and 2022? This is the question any sensible person must answer before apportionment of blame.
“The obsession of Janjaweed politicians, their religious leaders and compromised Igbo political class, with IPOB should tell any right-thinking person all they need to know about their true intentions.
“We stand tall to tell all of them today that Biafraland will never be conquered by these jihadists. The Igbo race would not be subservient to anybody, interest or group regardless of the human and material cost.
“IPOB is against every form of injustice, criminality and lawlessness and shall collaborate where necessary with local security outfits to drive away criminals sponsored by politicians who are against the release of our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.”
