Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) worldwide, on Sunday, said that happenings in Nigeria have vindicated its position that the Nigerian union was unsustainable.
IPOB, which expressed gratitude to all, especially Biafrans and lovers of freedom who joined in the march/rally, in Aba, Abia State capital, on Saturday, to honour its members and other innocent people allegedly murdered in cold blood by Nigerian security agents last year at Igweocha (Port Harcourt) on the day of the inauguration of President Donald Trump of America, insisted that the only solution for Nigeria was for free, self-governing nation states.
The group, in a statement by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful, noted that all the injustices that necessitated its agitation for Biafra were now being felt by all including those that opposed the ideology of its leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
The statement read in parts, “Today, Nigeria is still paying a high cost in loss of human lives, which unfortunately, includes a preponderance of Biafran lives, for that decision of Yakubu Gowon. Nigeria is still paying in the form of renewed genocide, now championed under the twin umbrella of a lopsided Nigerian security forces and Fulani herdsmen.
“In an era where armed Fulani men, emboldened by the acquiescence of the Northern ruling class and complacency of the Presidency, unleash murderous mayhem on unsuspecting civilian populations, we must spare a thought for IPOB agitators brutally slaughtered for demanding to be accorded their constitutionally guaranteed rights.
“Ironically what IPOB is agitating for – freedom for all, is the only approach that can solve the Fulani conundrum. Had the wider Nigerian public not sided with the Buhari regime in their persecution of IPOB, such blatant discriminatory and hypocritical approach to democratic governance in Nigeria would not obtain. We steadfastly and unapologetically maintain that the Nigerian union is unsustainable, only free self governing nation states is the solution.
“IPOB remains today, at the forefront of the new revolutionary change sweeping across the land. Things can no longer be the same because all the injustices that gave birth to our agitation for an independent Biafran state are now being felt by all those that once stood in opposition to the ideology of our prophet and leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
“As genocide looms ever large in Nigeria today, IPOB restates the call for a referendum to enable ordinary people decide their destiny. The fate of 160 million people cobbled together by Frederick Luggard in a horrible experiment gone wrong cannot be determined by a morally bankrupt leadership of old men who are past their retirement age.
“In the face of all these, Biafrans have exercised uncommon restraint and continue to demonstrate to the world their commitment to peaceful agitation by refusing to take up arms for self-preservation. We have chosen this route because we trust in a new international order that is committed to protecting all oppressed peoples from genocide.