Emmanuel Ugwu in Umuahia and David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has accused the Department of State Services (DSS) of secretly killing its members.
The group said DSS had started a house-to-house search for its members where officials of the agency fish out and kill its members at random.
This was stated in a statement sent to journalists and signed by the group’s spokesperson, Mr. Emma Powerful.
In the release, it condemned the incessant arrest of its members.
Part of the statement read: “The security agents and the Nigeria secret police the DSS have started going round the cities of Biafra land arresting those suspected to be members of IPOB. “We wondered why the federal government will be calling for negotiation and still sending the security agents to be going house to house to search for the members of IPOB and killing them secretly without traces.”
In one of the instances, IPOB said: “The DSS and other security agents went to the house of the IPOB members and arrested one Mr. Chukwu Obasi Sunday who is living in Nnewi Ichi in Nnewi North Local Government Area of Anambra State, this was at an odd hour.
“They arrested and shot him on his legs and now detained him with bullets wounds in DSS cell.”
They also accused the DSS for being responsible for the death of one Chidiebere Onwudiwe, the national coordinator of IPOB in Biafraland and Justice O. Ude who were arrested three months ago.
“They have not been taking them to court, and nobody has seen or heard from them, we are sure they have been killed by the DSS, if they are still alive the DSS would have been taking them to court or released them on bail as they committed no crime against the government of Nigeria.”
IPOB added: “We are crying to the entire world to come for our rescue because the Nigeria government and her security agencies programmed the strategy to be going house to house search arresting and stifling lives out of the members of IPOB.
“We also use this medium to inform the whole world the torture and intimidation our members are under going in the hands of the Nigerian government and her security agents that prompted the untimely death of most of our members.”
Also, IPOB alleged that the federal government has resorted to exploiting the abundant army of unemployed, hungry youths in the land in order to undermine the cause of Biafra self-determination by creating imaginary IPOB factions.
At the last count no fewer than two groups (TRIPOB, RIPOB) have reportedly emerged from no where claiming to be splinters of IPOB with one of them repudiating all that the organisation stands for while the other said that it had sacked the detained IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
But in a statement signed by its spokespersons, Emma Nmezu and Dr Clifford Iroanya, IPOB said what is currently playing out is the replication of “the hunger games” in Biafra as “hungry and jobless hirelings “are being sponsored to pose as members of IPOB.”
“The latest session in Buhari’s ‘Hunger Games’ is the sponsoring of nondescript individuals and even using non-existent names to come up with acronyms that have “Biafra“ in them. Within 24 hours Buhari has sponsored three different groups all claiming headship or ownership of IPOB. One of the groups even boasted that they have sacked the leader of IPOB, Kanu. This is becoming comical and ludicrous. Buhari and DSS have descended so low that they now take advantage of jobless youths and engage them in Hunger Games.
“Because there is hunger in Nigeria and there is no shortage of hungry and jobless youths enough to do anything, Buhari requires them to do his bidding especially in experimenting in ‘Hunger Games’ in Biafraland.
“In a country where a woman cannot cook a pot of soup without deploying a security guard, getting riff-raffs to sign up to anything doesn’t require much effort. That is why we have miscreants today claiming to have sacked the leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu,” IPOB said.
The Biafra organisation further stated that the reason why the federal government and the DSS have resorted to creating phony groups in the name of IPOB was to divert attention from the murderous exploits of Fulani herdsmen.
According to IPOB, it was able to glean from its intelligence network that creating “one new IPOB fake group per day is to cause distraction from the natural public outcry and possible reprisals” following the latest herdsmen attack at Enugu State.
“We have confirmed that the slaughter was meant to happen on Tuesday night August 23, 2016. Because IPOB is a huge newsmaker people will be drawn away from the slaughter to focus on IPOB.
“When the slaughter failed to materialize on the appointed day but rather happened on Wednesday August 24th, 2016, Buhari and DSS cooked up another split of IPOB to keep the gullible public entertained and it actually worked because people never discussed or reacted to the massacre but rather dwelt on the reigning topic everywhere which was all about IPOB split,”
Meanwhile in a separate statement the head of media and publicity of IPOB, Emma Powerful, said that the move by the federal government and its security agency to deceive the general public with the formation of TRIPOB and RIPOB has failed.
“They failed in their attempt to use so called MEND and their own creation, Reformed Avengers to cause any spilt in the Niger Delta Struggle. Resorting to the same idea here, simply confirms that they are confused, frustrated and defeated.
“They could have at least used a recognisable name, to make it look real. Philip Effiong Osuji and Ikemba Biafra – the names they foolishly used, destroyed their intentions,” he said, pointing out that the so called leaders of the fake IPOB factions have no origin and parentage unlike Nnamdi Kanu, who hails from Afara Ibeku, Umuahia.
“Nigerians were waiting for this joke. They tried it on Avengers, now the great IPOB, tomorrow the DSS will form the Reformed Afenifere or the Reformed Egbesu and Ohanaeze Ndigbo,” the IPOB head of media and publicity said.
