The proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, issued a warning to those who have linked the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to the recent terror attack on a US convoy in Anambra State to drop the allegation, which it believes to be nothing but slander by those who are opposed to him being successful.
The group’s spokesperson, Emma Powerful, said in a statement that Obi’s mandate is divine and cannot be shortened by anyone.
While also refuting the allegation that he was part of those who attacked, as alleged by Nigerian security, Powerful said “It is important to note that those accusing IPOB of being behind the attack on the US Embassy convoy are the real masterminds.”.
He claimed that those behind it were also responsible for the deaths of the majority of its innocent members in the Southeast.
“Their quest to blackmail IPOB globally has led them into assassinating innocent people in Biafra Land. For instance, these government agents assassinated Gulak in Owerri, and they assassinated an army couple in an undisclosed location in Biafra”.
They assassinated Dr. Akunyili in Anambra (late Dora Akunyili’s husband). In all these and many more of the state-sponsored murder cases, IPOB was accused, and to date, police have never investigated any of them.”
Powerful also claimed that its intelligence unit protected former British High Commissioner Catriona Laing from assassination in 2022 when she considered coming to the country.
“If not for the intelligence from IPOB M-Branch on the plans to assassinate ex-British High Commissioner, Catriona Laing, in 2022 and the warning from IPOB leadership for her not to visit the South East, they would have assassinated her too.
“This recent attack on the US Embassy convoy is likely another state-sponsored attack to discredit the peaceful IPOB movement and to make the South East more unsafe for investors to continue coming to Biafra to invest. Again, they are late because our call for investors has already started yielding fruit”.
Powerful also issued a warning to anyone who has linked Obi to the US envoy attack: “Those linking Peter Obi to these attacks on the US Embassy Convoy are the ones that fingers are pointing to regarding the crisis happening in the south-east region.
“There is no way they can link innocent Peter Obi to it because he is from Anambra State. Does that mean that all the attacks happening in Adamawa State and Katsina State were caused by Atiku Abubakar and Buhari in Aso Rock, respectively?
“No matter how good or right ESN security work is, it can never be deemed good or right by the Nigerian government and its security agents. What is the justification for linking Peter Obi to the criminalities going on in the Southeast?
“Can it also be said that all the banditry and terrorism happening in Northern Nigeria is masterminded by their criminal politicians, whose evidence shows that they aid and abet terrorists?
“We are aware that several terrorist and bandit groups in the North are sponsored by the unscrupulous elements around them there. We should be asking, “Why are they mentioning Peter Obi?
“Is it because he summoned up the courage to contest their selection process, called an election, and won by a landslide? They are now robbing him of the mandate given to him by the people of Nigeria because he is an Igbo man.
“They are busy exposing their cluelessness in desperation to demonize IPOB. America has one of the most sophisticated intelligence systems in the world and cannot be deceived by the Alamajiris in the government in Abuja. We expect the US government to carry out an independent investigation into the attack,” he added.
