Only referendum will stop Biafra agitation –IPOB
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| Biafra |
IPOBadvised members not to relent until the Federal Government fixes a date for referendum, to decide whether the people of the South East want to remain in Nigeria.
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This came against the backdrop of the South East chapter of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO)’s statement that government and governors ot the region breached the law when the military was deployed on Operation Python Dance II.
In a statement made available to newsmen, in Awka, by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, IPOB blamed the action of the South East governors on jealousy, and added that, “South East governors cannot kill the ideology of Biafra. Rather, they are creating insurmountable problems for themselves and their generations unborn.
“IPOB cannot and will not succumb to pressure resulting from intimidation, arrest and brutal murders going on now all over Abia, Anambra and Rivers states at the moment. In other words, we have gone too far ahead to be bothered by the sound of bullets, bombs and fighter jets waiting to rain bombs on us. Nobody can stop the agitation for Biafra freedom at this point in time, only a referendum can do that.”
CLO in its reaction saidthe military exercise in the South East breached the provisions of Section 217 (2) (a)(b)( c) of the 1999 constitution as amended, which spelt out the composition, roles, command and operational rule of the Armed Forces, even as it usurped the role of the police under Section 215 (3) of the constitution, and accused the military of unleashing brute force on communities in the region.
In a statement co-signed by Comrade Aloysius Attah and Comrade Pedro Azuogu, chairman, CLO South East zone and chairman, Abia state chapter, respectively, the group accused the governors of the region of failing in their duties to the people by proscribing IPOB, and wondered why “while Fulani herdsmen unleashed series of violence and killings in the region, “governors of the South East, despite repeated calls to that effect, could not sponsor Executive Bills to their Houses of Assembly criminalising open grazing, yet, they are now quick to proscribe IPOB activities.”
The statement read in part; “The governors failed to realise that the discontent and agitations from separatist groups in the zone partly arose from the frustrations occasioned by their alienated governance which seems to favour the few at the detriment of the majority thereby breeding lots of unengaged youths. There is no hope for the South East if our Governors cannot take up the lead in condemning anything that affects the people they govern, fight for the zone’s equitable share from the Centre in the ‘authoritative allocation of values’ and resources or ‘who gets what, when and how’ which politics is all about.
“We are tempted to believe the assertion in some quarters that our Governors take orders from the ‘caliphate’ and cannot attempt to injure the sensibilities of the ‘Aso Rock power brokers ‘hence they are always tongue tied and hands-in- cheek whenever occasion demands that they should rise up with requisite action in anger and reject any slap on the face of the Igbo.
A meeting of the South East Governors with the GOC 82 Division of the Nigeria Army in attendance could not devote 1 line in their 11 point Resolutions to condemn the Army occupation of the South East and their mindless atrocities and killings so far perpetrated in Abia State only to summarily announce the proscription of all activities of IPOB.”
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