Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), on Monday, said that the reason why politicians sponsored non-existent ‘new fake IPOB leader’ was because the pro-Biafra group is more popular than Nigeria while Nnamdi Kanu is more acceptable than any politician in Nigeria.
The group said it is more potent now than before the advent of Operation PYTHON DANCE II given to its activities and that it has re-strategised and been re-engineered.
A statement by the Head of Directorate of State (HDoS) of IPOB, Mazi Chika Edoziem, said that to stop alleged shameless corrupt politicians from further misinforming the public about the operations of IPOB, it had alerted all major governments of the world to be mindful of every information they receive from persons claiming to be part of IPOB.
It read in part: “Not too long ago the masses were bombarded with the false narrative that IPOB had been defeated, weakened and crushed. Nnia Nwodo led Ohaneze Ndigbo, DSS and elements within the South East governors forum made considerable amount of financial gain and political capital out of perpetuating the myth that IPOB is no more. When it dawned on them that we IPOB are now even more potent than before the advent of Operation Python Dance II, given the successful boycott of Anambra governorship elections, they have re-strategised and re-engineered the narrative into a split within IPOB”.
“Nnia Nwodo has been heard on many occasions recently boasting to his Northern handlers in the presidency, and in his words that “IPOB is riddled with factions and I’m in touch with leaders of these factions”. Nothing can be farther from the truth. He is peddling this myth to justify the money he collected from the presidency to sabotage the divinely ordained Biafra restoration project” the group alleged.
“To stop shameless corrupt politicians from further misinforming the public about the operations of IPOB, we have alerted all major governments of the world to be mindful of every information they receive from persons claiming to be part of IPOB”
“In this regard, we hereby inform the world that unless a correspondence emanates from IPOB world headquarters in Langenfeld Germany signed and sealed by Mazi Uche Mefor deputy leader of IPOB and Mazi Chika Edoziem head of Directorate of State, such document should be ignored. Enemies of freedom are going to extra ordinary length to subvert the will of the people but we assure them they will never succeed.
“We reiterate our call to Okezie Ikpeazu, Nnia Nwodo, DSS and Federal Ministry of Information to ask their fake ‘IPOB leader’ to tell the world where he operates from, where he comes from or which IPOB unit he belongs to. Planting written anonymous unsigned press statements in the Nigerian media with the hope that highly intelligent followership of IPOB, the largest freedom fighting movement in the world, will succumb to such nonsensical subterfuge is mere wishful thinking”.
“Those people in the pay of this APC government that have taken it upon themselves to plant false and fake news in the public domain must understand they are undermining public trust in the media. It is particularly worrying that certain individuals will publish unsigned press statements from shadowy individuals working for dubious politicians with the sole intention of misleading the public”.
“We urge media houses to refrain from publishing any press statement from anonymous sources. They should not allowing themselves to become unwitting agents of fake news as may appear to be the case in the ongoing effort by Okezie Ikpeazu, Nnia Nwodo and Lai Mohammed’s Ministry of Information in collaboration with DSS to mislead the masses into thinking that IPOB is factionilised when such is not the case.
“Verification of the source of every information and statement given for publication will help identify and isolate those bent on spreading falsehood. Similar exacting standards must be applied to purported statements issued by faceless persons claiming they are part of the great IPOB worldwide family? “Reputable publications should not knowingly publish statements from person or persons they themselves know don’t exist? An unsigned press statement is confirmation that the information being peddled is false because you can’t link it to any conformable source”.
“To prove that the latest ‘Okwudili’ installment is fake and going by their latest statement, nobody was identified as having signed the statement, it only said “news made available to”.
In the interest of public confidence, we would like to ask media houses to please confirm the existence of person or persons issuing public statements regarding IPOB before publishing such,” Edoezim stated.