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Condemns air strikes in South East
From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
The Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB) has debunked the claim by the Nigeria Air Force that camps of the Eastern Security Network (ESN) in Anambra and Imo State were recently bombarded by their forces.
A statement by the spokesman of the pro-Biafra group, Emma Powerful described the claim as false, insisting that they do not have camps in the areas mentioned.
Even as IPOB has condemned what it described as the innocent bombing of the South East by the Air Force, it urged the personnel to channel its energy into fighting the Boko Haram and ISWAP insurgents in the North.
He said “However, as much as we detest the criminals impersonating IPOB and ESN in their violent activities in the name of the Biafra struggle, we nevertheless condemn the bombing of any part of Biafra Land by the Nigeria Air Force.
“If the Nigeria Air Force has functioning fighter jets to bomb criminal hideouts in the rainforest of the Southeast, why then have they not bombed terrorists and bandits who are in the open in the desert lands of the North?
“Some communities in the Northern Region of Nigeria are under the control of Boko Haram, ISWAP terrorists, and Fulani bandits. They are moving freely, abducting school children and farmers, while their State Governors and the Federal Government of Nigeria are negotiating with them.
“IPOB ESN doesn’t engage with criminalities we are a decent organisation the pictures of old women show that they are under drugs, do they think that we are fools like them?
“We totally condemn this bombing and destruction of our land. The government negotiates and pays ransom to the terrorists and bandits in the North, and the terrorists and bandits, in turn, use the money to acquire more assault rifles and other sophisticated weapons to continue their terror activities.
“ESN operatives are intact and waiting for the last whistle for Biafra’s freedom. We are focused on the restoration of Biafra and not on killing our people in Biafraland. Biafrans are fully aware that those kidnapping and snatching cars are neither IPOB members nor ESN Operatives.
“We have written several press releases disassociating ourselves from the criminal gangs operating around Uli, Ihiala, Nnewi, Osuihiteukwa, Osumohu, and recently Okigwe axis, The public should go back to as far back of 30th of September 2022 on national dailies you would see where IPOB disassociated itself from the criminal activities of these people in Ihiala, Uli, Lilu Osumohu, Osuihiteukwa and Nnewi South LGA.”
However reacting to the army purported to be used by IPOB to perpetrate crime, Powerful said “For the avoidance of doubt, Biafra does not have an army, and there is nothing called Biafran Liberation Army in Biafra land or in diaspora.
“What we have are vigilante outfits and the Eastern Security Network (ESN), not a Biafran army. ESN has a mandate to go after the Fulani terrorists masquerading as herdsmen in our bushes and forests raping our mothers, sisters, and wives and destroying our farmlands in the East.
“The criminals operating in military camouflage parading themselves as Biafra Liberation Army are sponsored agents, not ESN Operatives at all”. Powerful asserted
He also added: “The Nigeria Air Force must call those criminal camps they bombed by their names and not mention ESN or IPOB. Meanwhile, Air Force bombing of any criminal camp in Biafra Land while negotiating and funding terrorists in the North is the promotion of the same ethnic cleansing agenda against Biafrans and the Biafran nation.”
