Northern Groups Write UN, Want IPOB Pronounced A Terrorist Group, Referendum Initiated
Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has reacted to the proscription issued on the secessionist group by the federal government, adding that “We are not terrorists and can never be”.
The Nigerian government had wielded the big stick on the pro-Biafra group, last Friday, as the defence headquarters (DHQ) declared IPOB a “militant terrorist” organisation. South-east governors subsequently issued a statement, proscribing the group.
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The military has come under severe criticism for the declaration, coupled with a statement credited to the Senate President Bukola Saraki, which described the action of the military and the governors as unconstitutional.
However, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, sanctioned the proscription, in a move that is aimed to take the heat off the army and to ensure that due process is followed.
It is understood that Buhari signed the proclamation on Sunday before his departure for New York, after which a federal high court in Abuja upheld the declaration.
However, the group, in a press release signed by its publicity secretary, Emma Powerful described as obnoxious the order by Chief Justice Kafarati proscribing and branding it as an unlawful terrorist group.
It condemned the order as “disgracefully, shambolic, crudely fabricated and concocted order delivered by a biased APC lackey”.
IPOB added that declaring her a terrorist organization is more or less like declaring the whole indigenous peoples who live in their ancestral homeland in Biafraland as terrorists.

The statement read in part: “IPOB has never bombed or killed anyone. Our rallies are the most peaceful with no recorded incident or fracas or lawlessness; we have not killed anyone, yet Hausa Fulani Islamic dominated Nigeria, along with their judiciary and sponsored media attack dogs tagged us a terrorist group.”
“We must continue to ask what evidence led Justice Kafarati to bow to blackmail and pressure from DSS and Aso Rock to grant this order when the very brave Justice Binta Nyako ruled in the same high court sitting in Abuja that IPOB is not an illegal organization.”
“We are not terrorists and can never be because our struggle for Biafra self determination is our undeniable right under United Nations and African Charter which Nigeria is a signatory to.”
“Unarmed, peaceful IPOB should never and cannot be labeled a terrorist organization when Fulani herdsmen from Buhari’s tribe, with their Hausa Fulani soldiers in the Nigerian Army are the ones killing IPOB family members.”
“The world can now clearly see there is something fundamentally wrong with the Nigerian psyche and it’s propensity to reward evil and punish good. Nigeria will go down in history as the only country on earth to proscribe a peaceful organisation whilst blood thirsty violent marauders are given financial inducements to stop killing their innocent victims.”