From Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha
THE Traditional Prime Minister of Ndigbo (Onowu Ndigbo) Chief Michael Ozua Okoye has warned the splinter groups from Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), describing them as saboteurs and greedy people who were paid to destabilize the struggle for Biafra.
He said that there was no need for any pro-Biafra group to come up and claim to have sacked the leader of IPOB Mr. Nnamdi Kanu who has been in detention for committing no crime even after two courts had granted him bail, saying that it was a betrayal of the struggle.
Okoye, who is also the Traditional Prime Minister of Awkuzu, and a Colonel in the defunct Biafran Army while speaking with Sunday Sun said that the attitude of some youths in the quest for money has contributed to the infiltration into the pro-Biafra agitators.
According to Okoye, “it is greed that caused the splinter groups of IPOB or MASSOB. The new groups want to get rich quick, they are saboteurs who betrayed their brothers due to money. How can another group come out to say that they have sacked Nnamdi Kanu who has been in detention for some time now, when all the Igbo people are calling for his release after courts granted him bail?
“It happened during the war, some people betrayed Biafra because of greed. We lost the civil war due to saboteurs in our camp. These people are hired to cause disaffection among the groups. I want to caution Igbos on the quest for money and that they should take it easy to achieve our aims, we should be happy with what we have, than to look for more, it is greed,” he fumed.
On the herdsmen men- ace in the South-east, Chief Okoye said: “Buhari should help us to talk to the cattle rearers. They are killing our people for no just cause. There was rearing of cows during Jonathan, Obasanjo and even during military administrations, but it was not like this. Why should the herdsmen be above the law? They are carrying Ak47 openly and nothing happens, and Buhari should look into it and caution them.”
He joined in the call for the restructuring of Nigeria into six geopolitical zones to end ethnic agitations and marginalization that hadthreatened the existence of the country.
Okoye said that with the restructuring of the country every geopolitical zone would use the resources available in its zone to develop, thereby reducing over dependence on federation allocations, adding that it would help in reducing unemployment and creation of jobs to the teeming youths and graduates.
Two splinter groups recently claimed to have emerged from the group fueling speculation that the IPOB has been weakened.
TRIPOB, the first group to break away, had selected October 1, Nigeria’s Independence Day, as the day when the Biafran flag would be burnt and forgot- ten for good.
TRIPOB said its outlook on the agitation had changed and therefore resolved to break away due to what it regarded as the rigid and fatalistic position of the Nnamdi Kanu led IPOB.
But the second group Known as Reformed Indigenous People of Biafra (REIPOB) said Nnamdi Kanu, leader of IPOB, and Phillip Effiong Osuji spokesman of TRIPOB, had been sacked adding that the new group would resist the burning of the Biafran flag.
However reacting to the claim pro-Biafra group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) accused the federal government of being behind the plans to balkanize the group with the sole objective of whittling down the momentum in the Biafra struggle.
IPOB in a statement by its spokesperson, Emma Powerful said that the government had mobilized some people to embark on protest against its leader in order to paint the picture that the group was divided.