Secession: President Buhari finally reveals those sponsoring IPOB
Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, has alleged that a proscribed group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) are backed by highly-paid foreign lobbyists. Buhari made the accusation on Monday, August 30, in a statement issued through Garba Shehu, his senior special assistant on media and publicity.
He alleged that the group was committing acts of terrorism in order to steal money. Buhari stated that IPOB is not struggling for freedom when they attack police stations and property.
The president dismissed the suggestion that the group was defending the rights of Christians. He said: ”IPOB is not defending Christians – as their highly-paid foreign lobbyists claim – when almost every citizen of those states they terrorize is uniformly Christian.” The president stated that members of the group have been duped by their lobbyists. He said some misguided foreign media and politicians believe in the wrong narrative that IPOB is representing the interest of Christians. The president urged Nigerians to unite and oppose those who are attempting to cause divisions in the country for selfish reasons.
Meanwhile, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, on Sunday, August 22 called on the Igbo leaders not to turn their back on the arrested leader of IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
Anyanwu made the appeal in Owerri, the Imo state capital while speaking to journalists on the arrest and detention of the IPOB leader. The senator who represented Imo East senatorial district in the Senate between 2015 to 2019, said the Igbo leaders should learn from the Yorubas who stood against the arrest and planned extradition of one of their own, Sunday Igboho, from the Benin Republic to Nigeria.
In another news, a former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has spoken against the agitation for secession, arguing that Nigeria has more to gain by being united. TVC reported that the Obasanjo made the statement on Friday, August 27, at a book launch held at the Admiralty Centre, Naval Dockyard, Victoria Island, Lagos state. The elder statesman pointed out that the cost of staying together as a nation is cheaper than the cost of dividing Nigeria.
