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…Replies PANDEF, Igala groups on non-Igbo claims
From Stanley Uzoaro, Owerri
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has disassociated itself from the second declaration of Biafra in far away Finland, labeling the actors as mere content creators acting in a shambolic gathering.
The Media and Publicity Secretary of IPOB, Emma Powerful, who made this claim yesterday in a statement, said that those who made the declaration did so under the auspices of a phantom and ridiculously named Biafra Government in Exile.
IPOB, therefore, made the following clarifications:
“Those leveraging on this disgraceful episode in Finland by a bunch of morons, should be guided in their utterances because it has become apparent that these traducers and agents of oppression have gone into overdrive in their quest to ascribe unjustified importance to an event that was in essence a joke and a shameless attempt to discredit the genuine agitation of IPOB for an independent homeland for the people of Biafra. All those in positions of power in Nigeria that sponsored this joke called declaration in Finland in the hope of damaging the global standing of IPOB should cover their faces in shame. In their desperation to destroy IPOB by any and every means and at all costs, they ended up according notoriety to a nonentity that proclaimed himself prime minister from a one-bedroom flat on the 20th floor of a housing project somewhere in Finland.
“The myriad of statements purportedly emanating from some of these recruited faceless individuals on social media and belatedly from alleged Igala groups and PANDEF, disassociating themselves from Biafra is not only pathetic but laughable. For the thousandth time, we wish to make it abundantly clear that ancient Igboland spans 13 states of Nigeria. These are not areas occupied by Igbo-speaking people but are ancient Igbo land with Igbo people in them. Therefore the hate inspired, politically motivated gerrymandering of borders in Igboland to create the misleading impression that Igboland and Igbo people are confined to only five states of the Southeast is a lie this IPOB shall confront and will continue to confront until the truth is not only acknowledged but acted upon via the instrumentality of a United Nations supervised referendum as was the case in Southern Sudan, the newest state to emerge in Africa.
“Those in Igala and PANDEF that claim they don’t want anything to do with Biafra, must also know and accept that Igboland in these territories Gowon and the British ceded to the North, Mid-West and the so-called South-South will eternally be Igboland and no Jupiter will change this irrefutable fact. When the Nigerian state balkanised ancient Igboland by carving these territories into their newly created ‘non-Igbo’ states, nobody complained because IPOB had not come by then. Now that God has determined that we must come, we IPOB are here and we say without any fear of contradiction that Igboland is one and indivisble, from those carved into Kogi State to Bayelsa and from those in Cross River to Edo.”
The group, however, said that its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, had repeatedly said that no ethnic group, tribe or clan will be forced to become part of Biafra, advising that “PANDEF and our brothers in Igala land should wait for an opportunity to express their preference in a referendum before deciding where they wish to belong or not.
“We must also be guided by the fact that the wonderful people of Obosi in Anambra State have within them those who are descended from the land of Igala in present day Kogi State. If in doubt ask the Attah of Obosi. We Biafrans are republican by nature and no single human being can arrogate powers unto himself without the consent of the people.”
