Emmanuel Ugwu in Umuahia
As the dust of the controversy generated by the invitation of Apostle Johnson Suleiman by the Department of State Service (DSS) still hangs in the air, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has decried the alleged hypocrisy of the security agency in dealing with sensitive national issues.
In a statement issued by the spokesmen of IPOB, Emma Nmezu and Dr. Clifford Iroanya, following their analysis of the DSS reactions to the “hate statements” made by adherents of Islamic and Christian faiths, they stated that they revealed a pattern of bias and hypocrisy.
They noted that by asking the members of his church to defend themselves against the murderous herdsmen, the General Overseer of the Omega Fire Ministries was only exercising his fundamental human rights of self-defence recognised by the United Nations.
The IPOB spokesmen pointed out that prominent adherents of the Islamic religion had in the past made inflammatory statements encouraging the killings of Christians by herdsmen while the DSS looked the other way.
Specifically, IPOB cited inflammatory statements made by Zahra Buhari, daughter of President Muhammadu Buhari; Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III, and Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el Rufai, without attracting the attention of the DSS.
“We recall that in 2016, Weeklypostng.com reported a message from Zahra then 21, where she stated as follows: ‘killing will keep going on, Muslims who don’ts (sic) want to adhere to Muslims rules will be killed, Christians will die until they turn Muslims, Biafrans is just a say (sic) dream, political oppositions must follow my daddy’s (sic) rule.
“We also recall that in 2016, the Sultan of Sokoto ordered Muslims in Nigeria to fight anyone trying to stop them practising Islam without giving details of what he meant by “trying to stop them.
“In a tweet in 2012, El-Rufai stated as follows: ‘We will write this for all to read. Anyone, soldier or not, that kills the Fulani takes a loan repayable one day no matter how long it takes,” IPOB said.
The group further recalled that and reminded the world that the public relations officer of Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), Mr. Yakubu Kuzamani, had accused El Rufai of engaging in hate speech while speaking on an Aljazeera television programme on January 17, 2017.
“In all these three examples, the common thread is hate speech and an incitement of Muslims against non-Muslims. But in all, none of the perpetrators of the hate speeches has been invited by the DSS,” it said.
It then raised these posers: “Why is Apostle Suleiman being singled out for investigation by the DSS? Why did the DSS not invite Zahra Buhari (now Mrs. Zahra Indimi) for her hate speech? Why did the DSS not invite the Sultan of Sokoto for his hateful and inciting speech? Why has the DSS not invited El Rufai for his hate speech that was even announced by SOKAPU?”
IPOB expressed disappointed with the National Assembly for not calling the DSS to order “as they engender tyranny and religious bigotry.”
