AngryIgboDon:
Brothers if you know, you know

aguele:


By Charles Ibekwe


The activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra have generated some controversies in recent times, and this has led to scores of deaths that if care is not taken might escalate into an unimaginable proportion. IPOB, as it is fondly called, is not new to such controversies. As a fact, IPOB has thrived on disputes that often times not leads to the escalation of violence in South-East Nigeria and other parts of the country. And the recent happenings in South-East Nigeria occasioned by the systematic escalation of killings led by IPOB indeed calls for concern.

I have long stated in numerous forums that the activities of IPOB might sooner or later escalate into a monster that would ultimately consume South-East Nigeria if the relevant authorities do not take urgent and proactive steps towards address this challenge. I did specify at the national level for the simple fact that some governors of states in South East seem to be concerned about their political relevance that they have elected to turn a blind eye to the nefarious activities of IPOB.

The reason is simple. They do not want to be seen as anti-Igbo, which by and large, would affect their political fortunes. For them, it makes more sense, politically and economically, than protecting the interest of the commoners who would ultimately bear the brunt if things get out of control.

That IPOB is waiting to assume a more dangerous dimension is an understatement. That IPOB would also be the albatross of the Igbos in the buildup to the 2023 general elections is also an understatement. The indices are clear, and the pointers are also indicative that South-East Nigeria would experience a situation that would be worse than the Boko Haram crisis in North-East Nigeria.

I am sad that if not for anything that the activities of IPOB is gathering momentum and the political leaders in South East have not seen the need to make strategic interventions that would protect and preserve the relative peace and tranquillity in the region. Instead, they are playing to the gallery. For example, I find it worrisome that IPOB would issue a sit-at-home order in all parts of South East. Whether it was successful or not, remains another topic for discussion. But the fact that there was a display of such effrontery leaves more to be imagined.

I stand to be corrected. I am not aware if there was a counter-order to that order issued by IPOB whether from the political elites or the traditional institutions in Igbo land. What does this tell us? Your guess is as good as mine.

Those that still think that IPOB does not have ulterior motives in South-East Nigeria ought to have a rethink and come to terms with the starkness of the reality that the activities IPOB has posed to not just the entrenchment of democracy in the region, and also the socio-economic wellbeing of the Igbo people as a whole.

Ironically this is what is playing out in South East, and we have not deemed it necessary to speak in one voice in total condemnation of its nefarious activities. As they say, all politics is local, as well as happiness is also local. The implication of the above is that should the Igbos elect to turn a blind eye to the gradual disintegration of the South East by the activities of IPOB, then we would have ourselves to blame.

This is also instructive when we view critically how the Boko Haram insurgent group evolved and destabilized the North East region in Nigeria in the past ten years. Boko Haram was not imported into the North East, it was a creation of the North East, and it eventually succeeded in causing the destruction of lives and properties in unimaginable quantum. With due respect, the political authorities didn't act when they were supposed to and today what is being experienced in the region is as a result of that inaction.

I am not convinced that the South East region can cope should IPOB translate into a monster like the Boko Haram group. Some would say that there is no basis for comparison, but that in my opinion is a gross and inept thought line which would ultimately consume us as a people. I am not convinced we need a soothsayer to tell us that should IPOB allowed to thrive unabated; the South East region would be doomed.

Today, IPOB is posturing as an organization for the interest of the Igbos. Tomorrow it would turn its fangs to the very people it claims to be protecting their interest when push comes to shove, and the chicken would come home to roost.

The activities of IPOB must be addressed adequately in the interest of peace in the South East region, which is arguably the most peaceful part of the country. It consequently behoves on all well-meaning Igbo sons and daughters to do all within their means to ensure that IPOB does not cause a crisis of unimaginable proportion in South East.

We must also realize that indeed we would bear the brunt and we would all have ourselves to blame. It thus remains my firm conviction that indeed IPOB has something sinister up its sleeves, and it is not in the best interest of the South East region. Indeed the time to speak is now. For if we don’t and allow Nnamdi Kanu to get away with this great disservice to the Igbos, posterity won’t be kind to us. It is hoped that this piece would elicit the much-needed reawakening of the true Igbo spirit in all of us in the preservation of peace in South-East Nigeria. This is my two cents.

Ibekwe is a public affairs analyst and wrote from Enugu.

Some elder statesmen and prominent activists say Nigeria is on autopilot.

John Cardinal Onaiyekan, Dr Hakeem Baba Ahmed, Gen. Martin Luther Agwai (rtd.), Prof. Attahiru Jega, Professor Jibrin Ibrahim, Dr Nguyan Shaku Feese, Dr Usman Bugaje, Adagbo Onoja, Amb. Fatima Balla, Ambassador Zango Abdu, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, Chris Kwaja, Dr Hussaini Abdu, Kemi Okenyodo, Jim Gala, Aisha Muhammed Oyebode and Tsema Yvonne said this in a joint statement on Thursday.

They spoke under the auspices of the Nigeria Working Group on Peace building and Governance (NWGPG).

They called themselves a group of Nigerian civic and thought leaders.

According to them, the Nigerian State is on autopilot and is currently not being governed.

"The result is that corruption has gone completely out of control, as there is a concerted effort to dismantle anti-corruption agencies and render them ineffective, while evidence of corruption is growing, the prosecution has slowed down considerably," they said.

They said the time for citizens' action was now, asking Nigerians not to agonize any more, but organize.

"The civil society actors noted that in the absence of a binding narrative, there are series of conspiracy theories that have emerged, with immense capacity to divide the country along the sharp lines of ethnicity and religion, which is further sustained by the absence of strategic communication between the Nigerian state and its citizens.

"This situation is further heightening the level of desperation among the citizens that are increasingly being detached from the everyday governance of the Nigerian State," they said.

The group lamented that increasing insecurity across the country continues to gallop towards the abyss due to the lack of political will and the inability of the country's security architecture to manage the multiple challenges.

They also warned that confidence towards the Nigerian state is very low, heightening the divides in the federation and creating widespread demands for dialogue and consensus-building on restructuring which the government has been tone-deaf to.

"Indeed, the presidency has adopted the strategy of responding to demands for an urgent and holistic review of the basic structures and governance processes of our nation with demeaning statements.

"This tendency to abuse those who legitimately ask those with the responsibility to listen to popular voices is alienating more Nigerians from the administration and playing into the hands of those who feed off desperation.

"The nation needs to adopt a sense of urgency in the way it deals with rapidly accumulating liabilities.

"Nigerians cannot wait for the convenience or pleasure of leaders in deciding what is essential.

"We must avoid the tendency to ignore our problems until they become a lot worse in terms of the capacities of leaders to deal with them.

"We call on younger Nigerians, in particular, to get involved in the search for a future without current levels of bitterness and dislocations," they said.

Contrary to claims by Governor Nasir el-Rufai, Hisbah, a group established to enforce Sharia law in some states in Northern Nigeria, has been operating in Kaduna State for years.

SaharaReporters had reported how officials of Hisbah in the state banned girls and ladies in Kuriga Village under Chikun Local Government Area from using or possessing mobile phones and sunglasses.

A resident of the community alleged that the group had been "frustrating the lives of youths in Kuriga and often carry out severe punishment for moral failings". 

But Governor el-Rufai in a tweet on Thursday said there was no Hisbah in the state.

“There is no Hisbah in Kaduna State. The Kaduna State Traffic Law Enforcement Authority and Kaduna State Vigilance Service are the only KDSG agencies with direct law enforcement and community level security mandates. All other official agencies in the sector are federal,” he said. 

However, findings by SaharaReporters revealed that this was far from the truth.

“The name of the committee is known as SUPREME COUNCIL FOR SHARIAH IN NIGERIA KADUNA STATE CHAPTER (HISBAH SUB-COMMITTEE)

“Our logo is a scale, signifying justice and equity. Our motto: Enjoining virtues and forbidding vices," a brief on the group's Facebook page reads.

Several photos of the group's activities in Kaduna is also visible on its Facebook page.

The Lagos State Government has concluded plans to use a few protest leaders to disrupt #EndSARS demonstration.

The protest leaders numbering 13 where led into the premises of the Lagos State House of Assembly in Alausa on Friday morning while others stayed outside to demonstrate.

Shortly after, the protest leaders emerged with the deputy governor of Lagos, Obafemi Hamzat, to address the crowd.

The crowd, however, booed Hamzat, who was suggesting police reform.

The protest leaders then moved aside to conclude plans to disperse the crowd.

One of the protest leaders SaharaReporters heard speaking, said, "They have given us result, in three stages. They said they will implement it, so let's move the crowd away from here and give them that time. They have given us a resolution."

Most protesters are, however, not privy to the conversation inside the House of Assembly with the protest leaders.

I have repeatedly asked those keepers of # ZOO secret in Aso Rock not to parade this mask wearing creature Yusuf Mohammed Abubakar in public but they won't listen.

Palm print like fingerprint is unique to one person alone. No two persons can share the same palm print. When did Buhari undergo the surgery that changed his palm prints? When?

Dear brethren, friends and foes, can you in all HONESTY say these images attached herein are that of the same person?
Two different persons, one presidency, only in the Zoo.

openbusiness6:
He's obviously angry and that's his own way of venting his anger. But that's not the issue here. She only offered to return the money, not just because he confronted her, but because he reminded her of the benefits she has been enjoying from him FOR FREE. That was the reset button that reset her brain to see that she goofed. Imagine it was the other way around, and the girl gave the guy half of the money to rent shop for business, let say a barbing salon, buys the guy clothes, bought the phone he's using, pays some of his bills etc, then one day she recommended that her father, whom the guy knows is her father, should go and cut hair at the guy's salon. Maybe the barbing fee is N1000, in your own view, will you say the same thing that the guy should collect the N1k, after all he is running a business? Sometimes, we need to be factual about life, not being sentimental. Common sense dictates that the guy will cut the father's hair and if he wants to pay, he will turn it down. And then maybe later on, the girl can pay him or not pay him, it doesn't matter, he's already benefitting much more from her already. You see some people just lack ethics and lack common sense. No wonder they say common sense is not common.

godofuck231:
the white man actually Thought the earth was flat and ships could fall off at a point, it was the African scientists who Thought the vikings how to circumnavigate, the African race is seen and felt in every continent in the world till today, from the aztec to Thailand this was before columbus knew about black indians or what most know as black Mexicans, even India new Zealand and Australia

We are now to be known as MIDDLE BELT OR CENTRAL NIGERIA.
The MIDDLE BELT have been so deeply penetrated that:
1. The second Lingua Franca of the Middle Belt is HAUSA LANGUAGE.
2. The Middle Belt have been identifying themselves as Northerners for long without any meaningful benefits.
3. The MIDDLE BELT have been riding the national horse on the back seat.
4. The Middle Belt have been bearing HAUSA NAMES without thinking twice about their original AFRICAN names.
5. The Middle Belt have been manipulated to dislike one another while worshipping their Core Northern OVERLORDS for ages.
6. The Middle Belt have been programmed and reprogrammed to accept being the lowest citizens of this country.
7. The Middle Belt will easily be squeezed using their RELIGIOUS PLURALISM and ETHNIC MULTIPLICITY.
8. The Middle Belt will have to stand strong and be a powerbase in the country the same way the SOUTH SOUTH have done and proper representation and respect is being accorded them.
9. The Middle Belt have been losing their daughters to the Afro-Asiatic overlords via forceful marriage.
10. The Middle Belt have very little knowledge of one another, their actual strength, competitive advantage, rich history and their spread!!!

THE Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has warned the Miyetti Allah Vigilantes, which the leadership of Miyetti Allah claimed to have deployed across the country, to steer off Igbo land (Biafra territory), saying that they would not be tolerated.

IPOB warned that if they would “they will meet their Waterloo in the entire Biafra land”.

In a statement issued by their spokesman, Emma Powerful said: “We know their mission, contrary to the lies they are feeding the gullible public with; they are rather coming to fulfil the order by their father, Usman Dan Fodio who, in 1960, charged Muslims to deep the Quoran into the Atlantic Ocean. But we assure them that they will meet their Waterloo in the entire Biafra land.

“We want to declare in unmistakable terms, that no Miyetti Allah vigilante is needed or will be allowed to operate in any part of Biafra land. They may operate in other parts of Nigeria but not on any Biafra soil.

“IPOB is ready for them irrespective of the sophistry of those backing them. We are very formidable and fully ready to defend our land against these vampires.

We don’t need them, and will never give them any inch of our land. We shall repel them and chase them back to the Sahel.

“How can we allow globally recognized terrorists and those who rape and maim after butchering others to police our communities? This can never happen.

“The Nigeria Army invaded the home of our Leader after IPOB had launched its Biafra Security Services, BSS. But now that the world’s fourth most dangerous terrorist organization is about being formally launched in Nigeria, everybody has suddenly gone mute.

“However, it will be in their interest to restrict their operations to the core north where they come from, and don’t venture to step into Biafra territory, otherwise, they will regret it.

“This has exposed the hypocrisy of the Presidency. They rejected regional security outfits and cajoled states into community policing, yet they have maintained criminal silence over the plot by the Fulani to float their killer agents.

“We once again assure all Biafrans not to panic but to remain calm as we get ready to usher in our Sovereign State coming very soon. We have all it takes to secure all Biafra borders”.

This is the third article that I scripted for the week, and it happened that this finally selected one was triggered on by the open persecutions of the Igbos, especially the recent arrests and slaughtering of the youths without arms in Emene, Enugu State. 

As they say, “no one will leave his house for a hunting expedition when his own house is on fire.” 

I am yet to be convinced that our fathers that I respected so much could exert so much energy at their quest to producing a Nigeria president at the detriment of securing the lives and properties of their children. 

How can our fathers and political leaders descend so low to compare the seeking of an Igbo presidency to the slaughtering of their children at every flimsy reason by the government’s security apparatus? 

Were those youths found with AK47 killed or arrested, or even if IPOB was proscribed, does it mean that Igbo youths are equally barred from holding peaceful meetings? One of the basic attributes of the Igbos all over the world is that they’ll never play with their monthly town hall meetings. 

It’s never against the constitution that people should not associate amongst themselves simply because they were alleged to belong to a proscribed association. 

How many times have Arewa Youths Forum held their meetings and oftentimes, with threats? What about Miyyeti Allah and Fulani herdsmen, and how many of them have been arrested or killed for the simple reason of holding meetings? 

The same goes to the Yoruba Youths, under their indefatigable leader, Gani Adams. 

When has holding meetings become a terrorist organisation in Nigeria? 

A peaceful meeting is allowed everywhere and so also is a peaceful protest for self-determination as enshrined in United Nations Freedom Charter. 

How can our elders and political leaders be happy that IPOB was proscribed while Miyyeti Allah, Fulani herdsmen and supposedly Boko Haram repentants are being pampered? 

Has there been any historical evidence of where the Igbos ever invaded any communities of their sojourn to rape, displace or kill the indigenous people? 

In all the Igbos enclave, I have not heard that the Igbos are carrying AK47 publicly to threaten their hosts. 

Every Igbo man is a law abiding citizen, and the most modest in terms of going about his business, obeying his or her host communities do’s and don’ts. 

Today, many Igbos are cabinet members in many foreign countries, where their ingenuities are well recognised and appreciated. 

Just recently, August 25, 2020, an Igbo man, Kaycee Madu, was conferred with the Canadian Minister of Justice and Solicitor General. Can this happen in Nigeria of the present? 

In his acceptance speech, he elucidated the true virtues about what Igbos stand for in all their endeavours…”pursuit of fairness, equality, and justice for all with every ounce of strength I have.” 

Igbos are hard workers and believe in the pursuit of fairness, which of course, has been denied them. 

Who can see what’s happening in this country nowadays, especially against the Igbos and pretend that all is well? 

We are all encircled by terrorists and bandits, and which elders will be joyous to tell their children not to defend themselves, because they’re aspiring to produce a president? 

What A Dream!

Maybe the elders are not looking at the depopulation planned process of the present regime, and hence don’t understand the true meaning of Nigerians betrayal gimmick. 

Whatever the children might have done, every reasonable father should protect his children first. 

This is the reason why Nnamdi Kanu has been abusing our leaders. 

Should we wait until we are all killed by tribal/religious forces in the disguise before our fathers will start defending their children? 

Very sad storyline

Igbos are indeed greedy and definitely can sell their own for political office and temporal comfort. That was the main absolutism of why Biafra was defeated. SABOTEURS by selling their dignity and freedom. 

What A Shame

I believe in one Nigeria but not at the expense of seeing my brothers, sisters, mothers, children and youths being slaughtered dastardly under unreasonable circumstances. 

Some of us have been on the battlefield fighting for the dignity of the Igbo race through our spoken words, but our fathers are selling us off for political reasons. 

I must thank Prof Nwala of ADF, who resigned from SE security committee this week because of the saboteurs within the Igbo land. 

Maybe the only Igbo leader standing tall as at now is Senator Abaribe. Listen to him: “Today is Enugu and tomorrow might be Abia or Imo….. the labelling of every Igbo group as terrorists and the incessant killings of her youths by the security operatives has become one too many and is no longer acceptable to our people.” 

I listened to Governor Rotimi Akerelodu in Channels Television on August 26, defending the establishment of AMOTEKUN, and his avowed statement that the Yoruba Security Outfit will never be under the tutelage of the Nigerian Police, rather, they will collaborate with each other in security matters. 

That was a heroic statement from a leader who won’t compromise his people’s lives for anything else. He instantly earned my respect. Who’s a leader without the living? 

Yet, our SE Governors set up security committee since February 2020, and instead of adopting a distinct approach, agreed to be under the Nigerian Police command. 

Even at that, they have remained silent at the obnoxious killings and raping in their respective states. 

Every one of them is more inclined to be in the good books of PMB than standing up to defend the people’s lives and wellbeing. 

These youths that are being targeted for extermination are not only the future, but the strength of the Igbo race. 

It’s even worrisome nowadays that most Igbo youths cannot walk around freely anymore in their land of their birth as they are constantly and arbitrarily being molested and arrested with the flimsy tag as being IPOB members. 

Shame And Shame

Presidency has become more important to the lives of our children….and yet, we are talking about changing Nnamdi Kanu operational narrative. The narrative of peaceful coexistence and speaking out loud against injustice or which other? 

Yes, we may not like his generalisation abuses, but have you wondered what could have been the fate of the Igbos by now without Nnamdi Kanu’s rude verbalisation? 

We have heard of remaining calm severally even at certain avoidable provocations, and yet, our youths are being slaughtered everywhere and every day. 

Our present elders and politicians are showcasing the sordid impression that the occupation of the presidency is more important to the lives of the Igbos. 

It’s only a disheartening soul that will undoubtedly make a statement that will condemn his family members simply because of a temporal period of political power. 

My forefather used to tell me that Igbos will rather die like heroes than being slaves to any race. 

Now, I am wondering how our dead heroes will be feeling, seeing that the love of money and political office are becoming increasingly more important to our Igbo leaders than securing the lives of their children. 

This is not a curse, but may the souls of our vulnerable youths, children, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters that have been sold off to die ingloriously because of personal interests hunt all the saboteurs in Igbo land. Iseeee. 

Can a father fight for a political relevance at the detriment of the lives and well-being of his children? 

Your answer is as good as mine. 

Thank you and remain blessed. Amen.

OWERRI – Uncertainty appears to have enveloped the South East zone following the prolonged silence by the South East governors and the Pan Igbo Socio-Cultural organisation Ohaneze Ndigbo over the killing of IPOB members in August 23, 2020. 

The Pro-Biafra groups and other Igbo personalities have accused the duo of conspiracy of silence in the wake of serial killings and provocations against the people of the South East. 

Retaliation threat against security operatives by IPOB has also heightened tension in the zone, just as Alaigbo Development Foundation led by Professor Uzodimma Nwala has called on Igbo to arm themselves with a view to protect themselves, their wives and children. 

Saturday INDEPENDENT gathered that retaliation against security operatives by any group in Igbo land would amount to an open invitation to the declaration of war between Pro-Biafra groups and Nigerian security operatives in the zone and by extension, an invitation to terrorists groups which obviously will not favour residents in the area including security operatives. 

Another fear in the area tilts towards the possibilities of many casualties on the side of innocent Nigerian citizens as nobody gets spared or taken for granted during war situations. 

Speaking with the National President of Alaigbo Development Foundation Professor Uzodimma Nwala he said that Ohaneze and South East governors have lost grip of the people they are leading within the zone including the youths. 

“This was the main reason why you see regular verbal fight between Ohaneze and Pro-Biafra groups or between the South East governors and the people they are leading. The people have lost confidence in the activities of the business class, Ohaneze and South East governors. 

“The reason why they keep silent is very simple. They are afraid of their past and they want to remain relevant in the present day Nigeria despite the odds against them. Every good leader must look at the heart beat of the people he is leading. Because they have lost grip of the people they are leading including the youths, anything can happen.” 

He disclosed that the governors are not proactive which was the major reason why he resigned as a member of South East security outfit. He objected to the Community Police initiative of the Federal Government, saying, ADF had compared the policy of Community Policing as equivalent to handing over the Security of Chickens to the Hawks. 

In a letter he addressed recently to retired Gen. Obi Abel Umahi, being the chairman, South-East Security Committee, he wondered why the governors are not speaking out in the face of insecurity against their people. 

Nwala declared that in the absence of the Federal Government legalising the use of AK47, Igbos should arm themselves with any available weapon to protect themselves, their wives and their children. He described this posture as a fundamental natural right that supersedes any state law. 

“I write to resign formally as a member of the South-East Security Committee which was set up at a Joint Meeting of the Governors Forum, Ohanaeze Ndigbo and the Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) since February 2020. I do this because the purpose for which this Security Committee was set up has been made null and void with the pronouncements of the Chairman of the South- East Governors Forum, Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi Sate, abolishing the idea of a Regional Security Architecture for the South-East. 

“In place of a Regional Security Scheme for Alaigbo, the Governors of the South-East have accepted the Community Policing program of the Federal Government. As you may recall, the Community Policing program has been rejected by the South East after the Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) exposed its inherent character as a policy to encourage the continued serial killing, kidnapping and rape of our women as well as to ensure the occupation of Alaigbo by the Fulani Jihadists. 

“In opting out of the now moribund South East Security Committee, we, in ADF shall continue to work with the various pan-Igbo organizations to advance all possible and legitimate means of ensuring the Security of Alaigbo and her neighbors. 

“It is to be recalled that in a Press Statement issued by the ADF on February 2020, we had stated unequivocally that the POLICING PLAN of the Nigerian Police has been IN OPERATION IN THE SOUTH EAST while the horrors in several parts of Alaigbo including Ebonyi State as depicted in the Report of Chief Igariwey at the last Ime-Obi meeting as well as that depicted in the Report by Mr. Aduba (CP Rtd.) at the Joint meeting of Ime-Obi and the Governors Forum. All those horrors rather than abating have been rising to crescendo with our helpless people wondering if they have any Government or leaders who care for their plight. 

“It is to be observed, very unfortunately, that immediately following this declaration of the South-East Governors, the unarmed Igbo youths have been gruesomely mowed down in Enugu State by combined forces of the Army, Navy, DSS, SARS, Police and other security forces. 

“Most of the personnel of the forces are no doubt non-Igbos. What is more, while this is happening, none of our Governors is saying anything. 

“In addition, it is our view and stand that: The Security of Alaigbo is a joint responsibility between the Government and the People of Alaigbo. ADF is not opposed to any genuine and positive role of the Federal Government and her agencies in helping to tackle the prevailing state of grave insecurity in Alaigbo, provided that such role by Federal Agencies must sunder the exercise and full control of personnel of our zone. 

“The primary Security outfit for the protection of Alaigbo must be that created by the Government and people of Alaigbo. Our people should not abandon their own individual and community responsibility over their security. If the Governors decide to abandon their own responsibility over the Security of our people, we, as organised patriotic forces in our land must continue to courageously play our role to ensure that our people overcome the prevalent dangerous siege over our land. 

“This is why history beckons on the emergent Coalition of Religious and Civil Society groups in Alaigbo to remain focused and determined to help protect our people. Certainly part of their responsibility is to provide strategic guidance to our patriotic youths to enable them play their role constructively. 

“We wish to call on the Federal Government to legalise the use of AK47 so that our people can arm themselves for their self-defense. In the absence of this, we call on our people to arm themselves with any available defensive weapons for the protection of themselves, our wives and our children. This is a fundamental natural right that supersedes any state law.” 

Also speaking with the Enugu State Commissioner For Information Chidi Aroh, said that, “for the fact that we have not made public statement does not imply that the state is not working. We are making contacts, holding meetings with Ohaneze and other Igbo leaders. 

“Governors of the South East have been meeting over the killing of IPOB members. There are more sides to the story than the people are seeing. Therefore, we want to ensure that as a government, we come out with facts and take concrete position in the interest of our people. 

“It is the primary responsibility for the government to protect the people and we cannot be seen to be doing anything less than that. But the Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi is interested in getting the details of what happened. Leaders don’t do statements they are not sure of or make statements that can lead to crisis.” 

Meanwhile, a group known as International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law petitioned to the chairman Police Service Commission, Musiliu Smith, demanding the dismissal of the Enugu State Police Commissioner Ahmad Abdurrahman. 

“Our writing Your Commission is to formally bring the attention of same to Black Sunday Massacre of dozens of unarmed citizens at the Community High School Field and environs, located in Emene in Enugu East Local Government Area of Enugu State, Eastern Nigeria. The massacred and the injured included sports enthusiasts engaging in various sporting activities in the School’s Premises or Field. The sporting activities include football, gymnastics, martial arts, volley ball, physical fitness exercises, etc; as well as those in church services and leisure and mental rehearsal activists, etc. The war-like shootings and killings had violently disrupted various church services involving Catholic Church and Pentecostals; forcing the converged and the converging to run helter skelter in a bid to doge and escape from raining police and military live bullets. 

“The shootings and killings were professionally and secularly avoidable but owing to crude, unprofessional, hate and racial policing applied in the instant case, the reverse was brutally the case. For instance, the SSS, instigator of the massacre, acted crudely unprofessional in its so called gathered intelligence” by playing the role of jack of all trades and master of none. 

“The Enugu State Police Commissioner, CP Ahmad Abdurrahman, manifested the crudest form of butchery policing when he incompetently mismanaged the incident and turned same into a war theatre and killing field of the war-like armed versus the defenselessly unarmed. He not only ordered the massacre but also usurped the powers of the Executive Governor and Chief Security Officer of Enugu State. This the CP did by unlawfully and unconventionally deploying the State’s Security Joint Taskforce-JTF (comprising soldiers, air force, SSS and various police crack squads,etc). By law and convention, it is only the Governor of Enugu State that can deploy same under situations of extreme complex security threats (i.e. bloody inter communal conflict). 

“Contrary to Police and SSS reports, independent eyewitnesses including residents of the area factually and believably disclosed that the Community High School Field had for years played host to various categories of sports enthusiasts and leisure and mental rehearsal activists including children who gathered every Sunday for the referenced purposes. Joining them are different Pentecostal Church congregants and those of the nearby St Joseph Catholic Church who conduct their Sunday church services. 

“But last Sunday, 23rd August 2020, armed SSS personnel stormed the School Premises and violently disrupted clusters of persons assembling peacefully including some pro Biafra activists and religionists engaging in civil sporting activities such as martial arts and foot balling. The violence used had included violent arrest and firing of live bullets at close range with intent to massacre as administratively ordered or directed; leading to those hearing anti bullet charms withstanding same and refusing to run. Live bullets fired at close range by SSS personnel eventually hit and felled some ordinary or non-anti bullets charm bearers, leading to angers and tempers rising to a boiling proportion, forcing the SSS personnel to retreat. The crude and butchery deployment of armed soldiers, air force, SSS and various police crack squads by CP Ahmad Abdulrrahman escalated the shootings and killings and turned same into a massacre. 

“Attached for more details is our statement on the issue, dated 25thAugust 2020: Emene Massacre: handiwork of Racial Profiling, Criminal Labeling & Crude Policing (…this is 5th Anniversary and 15th massacre since August 2015 with over 500 deaths and 550 injured) 

“Therefore, our writing Your Commission, Sir, is in line with powers and duties vested on same by Sections 6(1) of the Police Service Commission Act of 2004 and 153 (m) of the 1999 Constitution as amended and its Paragraph 30 of Pat 1 of the Third Schedule. By the provision of Paragraph 30 under Section 153 in the Part 1 of the Third Schedule to the 1999 Constitution, the Police Service Commission under you, Sir, is constitutionally empowered to: (a) appoint persons to offices other than the office of the Inspector General of Police in the Nigeria Police Force; and (b) dismiss and exercise disciplinary control over persons holding any office referred to in sub-paragraph (a) of this Paragraph (other than the IGP). The persons holding such offices are all sworn or serving members of the Nigeria Police Force, from Constable to Deputy Inspector General of Police including CP Ahmad Abdurrahman, Commissioner of Police Enugu State Command.”

By Chioma Gabriel, Vincent Ujumadu, Peter Okutu, Ugochukwu Alaribe & Chimaobi Nwaiwu.

APEX Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Alaigbo Development Foundation, ADF and Igbo National Congress, INC, among other stakeholders in the southeast, have tasked the federal government and southeast east governors over the killing of youths at Emene last Sunday.

They expressed dismay over the silence of southeast governors on the killings, wondering why innocent Igbo youths were being cowed, while foreigners were killing and maiming people in farms and villages and nothing was being done to contain it.

Anambra State Chairman of Ohanaeze, Damian Okeke-Ogene, said he expected the governors to have spoken since that incident.

“Maybe, the other governors are waiting for their colleague in Enugu where the incident happened or the chairman of the South East Governors’ Forum to address the issue. But in as much as these are our youths, we should be careful in dealing with people with guns. Our children should be very careful at times like this. It is not cowardice to be careful when handling sensitive issues, he said.”

Similary, the National Deputy Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Chuks Ibegbu, asked President Buhari to call security agents to order as they were embarrasing him and the nation.

Ibegbu warned against further shedding of the blood of any Igbo man or woman in any part of the country and pointed out the consequences of such.

He said: “Perhaps, it’s idleness that make Nigerian security agents to spend their precious time pursuing unarmed Igbo youths and interfering with their meetings. If it’s idleness, then they should be drafted to farms and our streets for construction work and other work to keep them busy unless there is a script which they are carrying out”.

Silence of Igbo govs, a betrayal — ADF

Similarly, Alaigbo Development Foundation, ADF, condemned the silence of southeast governors on the killings in Enugu, describing it as a betrayal.

In a statement by the Foundation’s Spokesperson, Chief Abia Onyike, the Chairman of ADF Media and Publicity, Chief Abia Onyike, stated that the South East governors have betrayed Igboland over their silence on the killing of Igbo youths in Enugu.

He said: “South East Governors have betrayed Igboland. Their chairman who is the governor of Ebonyi State had said that anybody talking of South East regional security outfit is looking for war. Umahi was engaging in cheap blackmail and behaving like a Caliphate agent.

“He cannot make any statement condemning the Emene massacre because he has already soiled his hands. He appointed his brother as the chairman of South East Security Committee and their recommendation has betrayed Igboland. Our people should be careful with these characters.

” Gov. Umahi has been dilly-dallying on the matter until the 14th of August, 2020 when he suddenly repudiated on the sovereign will of Alaigbo, inorder to curry the favour of his Northern Master’s who have promised him Vice Presidency come 2023. But the security of Alaigbo is more important than Gov. Umahi’s inordinate ambition.”

He also described the killing of the youths as “the latest phase of Igbo genocide, the longest, most continuous and unresolved genocide in the political history of the African continent.”

A decoy to spike violence and deny S-East 2023 Presidency — Udeogaranya

Adding his voice to the condemnation, the former 2019 APC Presidential aspirant, Chief Charles Udeogaranya, also condemned the government of President Muhammadu Buhari and southeast governors’ silence over the alleged extra judicial killings of IPOB members by the members of the Nigeria security agencies in Enugu State.

Udeogaranya expressed shock and disbelief that a government whose primary constitutional responsibility was to provide security is alleged to be involved in unleashing mayhem against a peaceful assembly of her citizens.

He maintained that those who carried out the inhuman act were aware that violence beget violence. He said, their sole intention was to turn the most peaceful and secured zone in Nigeria into a war-torn zone and expressed dismay over the silence of the governors especially the Enugu governor, where the incident happened.

He however, pleaded the people of South-East to resist the unsolicited provocation and invitation of violence by maintaining their peaceful nature, which is essential atmospheric infrastructure for development, progress and prosperity.”

Sack Commissioner, DSS Director, Army Commander —INC

Also yesterday, the Igbo National Council, INC, said the killing of “unarmed” members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, by joint security forces of Nigeria was a reminder of how the genocide in Rwanda started.

The INC said: “The killing of these unarmed Nigerians of Igbo extraction in their community by the Joint Team of Army, DSS and Police is not only unacceptable but shameful and barbaric.

“History has it that it was how the historic genocide in Rwanda started. The conspiracies and attempts by a section of this country to exterminate the Igbo race using state machinery remain a failed project from the point.

“In view of the above, we call on the Federal Government of Nigeria to immediately sack and prosecute the GOC 82 Division Nigerian Army Enugu, the Commissioner of Police, Enugu State and the Director of the Department of State Services (DSS) Enugu State Command for their shameless conspiracy and massacre of innocent and unarmed youths in Enugu State.

“We, therefore, call on the people of Emene to immediately launch the Operation Ije Agu in the various communities in Emene as the only way to forestall a repeat of this satanic act orchestrated by the agents of darkness.”

We’ll revenge unlawful killings — Nnamdi Kanu

However, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, yesterday, warned that all people that participated or assisted in the unlawful killing of any Biafran will thenceforth be adequately dealt with through every lawful means available to IPOB, including the right to self-defense, the right to repel every unlawful act of state and non-state terrorism.

In a statement he personally signed, entitled “The Enugu Massacre of 23rd August, 2020: An Open Letter to IPOB Worldwide”, made available through the group’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, Kanu, assured that the Enugu 21 who fell in defense of freedom, will not go unremembered.

“Let this be clear, all that participate or assist in the unlawful taking of the lives of any Biafran will-henceforth – be adequately dealt with through every lawful means available to us. Such lawful means include the right to self-defense, the right to repel every unlawful act of state and non-state terror.

“Yes, it’s true that we have no guns and no army but in the minds of our members lay the greatest weapon of all – the will to be free from domination and terror, the will to succeed, the will to survive, and the will to build one of the greatest nations that the world is yet to see. And soon to see.”

S-East Govs, should set up panel of inquiry —Ozobu

In his reaction, a chieftain of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Prince Richard Ozobu, asked South East governors and the pan Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, to set up a panel of inquiry to determine what transpired during the fracas between the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and the Department of State Services, DSS.

Ozobu said the panel had become necessary to unearth comprehensive facts about what happened because lives were lost, adding that Ndigbo must articulate their position to the federal government.

In his words:“The South East Governors and Ohanaeze Ndigbo ought to have set up a panel of inquiry to establish what actually happened. There ought to have be a meeting of Imeobi of Ohanaeze to aggregate the position of the Igbo to the federal government. But you can observe that Ohanaeze Ndigbo under the present leadership has been derailed.

“Don’t forget that the federal government has been gathering security information and intelligence. You know what it means for a proscribed group to be having a meeting? We need the security agencies to maintain law and order in the federation, it is not only in Igbo land. The security agencies can’t be blamed if they were attacked while doing their job. We must find a way of addressing this situation. We need reeducation within our area.”

What will happen if we say it? What actually will happen? That Nigeria is a criminal entity and its leaders bunch of heartless thieves. Yes I have said it. What will happen? Arrest me or kill me? What?

Home to mindless illiterates who thinks they have no option other than to endure. They watch their leaders live in affluence, while they swim gutters in satisfaction. Housing in GRA, and the poor in squalor and slumps. With police escort they beat every holdup, flogging the poor. Yes the poor will blame the poor who was flogged for blocking and obstructing the road of the rich. Yes, you caused it. Why did you block them. Don't you know your size they did ask. Yes I will say it, haven't you done your worse already.

Is he not rejoicing getting into NYSC. Idiot who can't even see the hopeless future awaiting him. Those of them already inside are still receiving 19k even after the increment to 30k minimum wage. Those outside never knew that it's just a year and they did embrace joblessness. No one cares, no protest, nothing nothing. The same rich keeps getting richer. One orientation exercise gives them millions, if not billions. Do they know that NYSC is nonsense? No they don't. But one day they will know.

Do you know how many that die in this country due to neglect, lack of hospital equipments and drugs in a day? They are in thousands. But who cares. They are black people. The blood of blacks doesn't worth a thing. Especially, the blood of a Nigerian. They are killed without respect anywhere in the world, and in their own country. They have a killing house as hospitals.

The poor who dies in these hospitals will be seen defending a Governor who travels abroad for medical treatment. Hopeless people. Is it your money? Is he not a Governor? He even got an allowance to treat himself abroad. That's when he didn't provide good hospital for the people he is leading. Slaves defending their slave masters.

Yes, you see you poor people? I call you idiots. You can't do nothing other than report this post to Facebook. Is that not what you guys are good at? No, you guys can actually do more. Call me a frustrated jobless fool who doesn't have a job. Isn't that what you will say? Hopeless animals who get paid by their oppressors to keep an eye on their fellow poor people.

Who is your President? A man without ordinary WAEC certificate. A bigot who has not only divided the useless country along ethnic and religious lines, but have also destroyed the economy. The southern idiotic leaders are praising the illiterate, urging him to go harder. They get paid and they keep sabotaging their own people. Anyone still respecting elders in Nigeria is a thief or a mischievous ignorant idiot.

There is no two ways about it. If things continue like this when I become an elder myself, I will seek no respect from anyone. Disrespect me and call me an idiot. When you can't speak the truth, you worth no respect. It's worse when you call yourself an elder.

Look at them Nigeria Policemen. They are even calling themselves police men. Men that stays on the road to collect bribe openly in the presence of little school kids. Idiots distorting the minds of little children. How can they be proud of this entity? They are growing up with something and that something is that it's good for policemen to be collecting money on the roads. Criminals with uniform. Killers of innocent men and women.

Protectors of the rich and killers of the poor. You soldiers are not left out. You are same with the police. Shameless people. Run away from Boko Haram, but kill innocent protesters.

Oh! Shame on you youths committing suicide. Fools who kill themselves instead of confronting their fears and oppressors. It is better you hit the street in protest. If you die you died for something. Confront your Governor, president and politicians. Use the energy against them. Put your life on the line if need be. If you die you died for something.

Don't ever tell us again that you are dying because your girlfriend left you. We don't want to hear it. She couldn't have left had it been these leaders are doing what they promised. So at least write that suicide note properly if you must take the option of suicide. Blame it on the President, governors and politicians. You can do better, and this is doing better.

God will punish you Nigeria men of God. The private jet pastors who continues to fool the people, and holding the chains of subjugation in trust for the evil politicians. Shameless politically correct individuals whose eyes is on what they will gain from politicians, instead of the well being of their faithfuls. You think I don't know what you mean when you tell them about patience? Pray for your leaders and wait on God. Con men who fools the people. Ndi Eze na aghọgbu ndi ha na chi. Nigerians will one day understand that you guys are one with the politicians. They will put you all where they put the politicians on that revolution morning. Only time will tell.

And what will you do? Threaten me with a curse? I don't fear your curses. So don't waste it. Keep it for those poor in mind fellows you all are fooling.

I didn't forget you Facebook influencers. Maradonas on Facebook dribbling the unsuspecting people. They think you really want a better Nigeria, but I know you are looking for a place in the government. Once that place is secured, you will use your pen to inflict pain on the people. I know you all, just that the people hardly know you guys.

You tell them about a better Nigeria, yet you know that a better Nigeria is impossible. You tell them about restructuring, yet you know it won't happen. Bunch of selfish liars.

The only people claiming patriotic Nigerians are politicians and Muslims who are at present enjoying the gradual Islamization of Nigeria.

Revolution is coming and it will end with an end to the fraud called Nigeria.
May it not catch us unprepared!

Emene Massacre: Handiwork Of Racial Profiling, Criminal Labeling & Crude Policing
Intersociety, Onitsha, Eastern Nigeria.
The Sunday, 23rd August 2020 massacre by the combined team of war-like Joint Security Taskforce (soldiers, air force, SSS and police SARS, Anti Cult and Anti Terror personnel, etc) of over 20 of defenseless and non rifle bearing Judeo-Christian citizens of Igbo extraction and violent disruption of Pentecostal and Orthodox church (i.e. Catholic) services at Community Primary School Premises, located between St Patrick Secondary School and St Joseph Catholic Church in Emene, Enugu State of the old Eastern Nigeria; are clearly and unarguably the handiwork of racial profiling, criminal labeling and stigmatization and crude and hate policing.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), one of the world’s oldest human rights groups founded in 1920, Racial Profiling" refers to the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity or religious origin. Criminal labeling and stigmatization have also become the modus operandi of the country’s present security forces. These are in addition to crude and hate policing ravaging the security forces of Nigeria as presently composed.
Specifically speaking and as a matter of several research findings, the presently composed Nigerian security forces are chronically haunted and bedeviled by crude, criminal and hate policing. These three are further fueled by gross lopsidedness of their personnel, commands and controls. While members of preferred and ethno-religiously pampered nationalities receive prioritized securitization and protection, members of other ethno-religious nationalities including those of Igbo Judeo-Christian compositions are brutally exposed to state actor and state actor aided non state actor dangers and harms as well as securitization policy and conduct discriminations.
The Emene massacre of Sunday, 23rd August 2020 therefore marks the 5th anniversary of systematic and well coordinated targeted massacre of defenseless, unarmed and non rifle bearing citizens of old Eastern Nigeria particularly those of Igbo Nation. The Emene massacre also brings to at least fifteen of such massacres in at least eight different occasions since August 2015.
The massacres had occurred in Onitsha, Enugu, Yenagoa, Uyo, Port Harcourt and Asaba on 30th August 2015-40deaths; Onitsha on 2nd and 17th Dec 2015-30 deaths; Aba on 18thand 29th Jan and 9th Feb 2016-40 deaths; Onitsha, Nkpor and Asaba on 29th and 30th May 2016-140 deaths; Port Harcourt on 20th Jan 2017-20 deaths; Ogwe, Aba, Isiala-Ngwa and Umuahia on 11th to 14th Sept 2017-180 deaths; Oraifite (state terrorism) on 2nd Dec 2019-4 deaths and now Emene in Enugu State on 23rd August 2020-over 20 deaths and 30 other deaths; all leading to death of over 500 defenseless citizens and fatal injuring of over 550. The dead and the injured are all members of Judeo-Christian faith.
Emene Massacre & Crude/Hate Policing:
Crude or unprofessional policing by the Nigerian security forces was brought to the fore. Apart from violent disruption of church services including those of the congregants of St Joseph Catholic Church along the old Abakiliki Road and their Pentecostal counterparts, the security forces especially the State Security Service (SSS) acted unprofessionally and maliciously.
Assuming, but not conceding to the fact that “SSS has gathered credible intelligence that some persons have been gathering at a named Primary School Field every Sunday morning for sinister motives”; the same Service should have professionally given its “gathered intelligence” to a well peopled and trained law enforcement agency (the Nigeria Police Force, Enugu State Command).
In turn, it should have been professional and appropriate for the Enugu State Police Command with its trained law enforcers including crowd control or dispersal department (i.e. Police Anti Riot) to move to the scene for purpose of dispersing the “sinister motivated” gathered crowd or persons. This is irrespective of whatever names called or labeled. The Police Anti Riot should have gone to the scene equipped with crowd or riot control kits or non-lethal tools; in company of some police detectives or plain-clothed personnel. The Police detectives, on their part, should have been dispatched to the scene to obtain the segmented structure of persons on the pitch and its vicinities including congregants attending 7.am church service at nearby and later ones by the Pentecostals. The detectives should have further ascertained the level of potential threats, or otherwise posed by the so called “sinister motivated gathered persons or crowd”.
Unfortunately and sadly, the SSS acted unprofessionally and chosen to become the “jack of all trades and master of none”. Statutorily and constitutionally, the core responsibility of SSS is to gather internal security intelligence and dispatch or share same, for purpose of law enforcement, with other inter agency bodies especially the Nigeria Police Force-the ‘general overseer’ of Nigeria’s internal security and policing. This is more so when such intelligence must have included the fact that the scene hosts vicinity and premises church services, football, volley ball, physical fitness trainings as well as relaxation or leisure and mental rehearsal, etc.
On the other hand, the ethno-religious identity of the Enugu State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Ahmad AbdurRahman says it all. Apart from his manifest bias and perceived crude and hate policing method applied, the CP recklessly abused his office and power, contrary to Section 15 (5) of the Constitution when he unilaterally and magisterially undermined the status of the Enugu Gov as “the chief security officer of Enugu State” and “chairman and capital financier of the State’s Joint Security Taskforce or JTF”.
It must be remembered that by convention and extant laws, the CP of Enugu State lacks power and authority to deploy the “JTF” anywhere in the State, except the State Governor. The Enugu Gov, on his part, has continued to exhibit his “medicine-after-death” approach. This he has done instead of rising to his clear-cut duties as the “Executive Governor and Chief Security Officer of Enugu State”. Had the Gov timely risen to his responsibilities as highlighted above, the massacre would have been averted and the incident handled in a civilized manner and without harm.
Police Claims-A Cock-and-Bull Story:
Independent investigation so far carried out by Intersociety, has clearly rubbished the Police CP’s claims and found same totally fallacious, irritating and provoking. The scene, the Community Primary School premises, located between St Patrick Community Secondary School and St Joseph Catholic Church at Emene, is an open place playing host to different categories of sport and leisure enthusiasts including martial arts and balling trainees and trainers as well as church congregants and leisure and mental rehearsal activists.
It is therefore an act of impossibility that same open field and Government owned pitch, surrounded by a Mission Secondary School (St Patrick) and a Catholic Church (St Joseph) and mushroom others could be allowed to be used as “secessionist arms training pitch or facility”. In other words, the Police and SSS narrative of “IPOB members receiving arms training on the pitch” is dead on arrival as “non state actor arms trainings are not received in open fields or premises”. It is also a fact that the defenseless citizens making use of the pitch on the day of the massacre were not only “IPOB members”.
Above all, the criminal laws of Nigeria are not designed against persons engaging in peaceful assemblies including those in sporting and religious service activities. This is irrespective of their “labeling” by Government or its security forces. After all, the present Nigerian Government and its security forces have been busy rolling out red carpets for those they described as “repentant” or “low risk” Boko Haram combatants. These included alleged clandestine conscription and granting of amnesty and award of international scholarships to them.
Therefore, the stark reality with regard to the Emene massacre is that the Enugu CP is both vicariously and directly responsible for the premeditated massacre and is not fit to remain in the Nigeria Police Force, not to talk of continuing as a serving Commissioner of Police. A well trained, intelligent, unbiased and ethno-religiously secular CP should not have acted the way he did including deployment of soldiers and calling for reinforcements from neighboring States of Anambra (i.e. Police Anti Cult), etc and ordering them to shoot and kill defenseless citizens at close range. It is most likely correct, therefore, to say that the Enugu CP is strong exponent of racial or discriminatory, hate and crude policing.
It is also so disheartening and shocking to be independently informed that even after massively shooting the helpless and defenseless citizens with war bullets, the JTF personnel went after the escapees following their blood droppings to get them arrested including those who managed to climb and hide inside the ceilings. They also picked more than a dozen dead bodies of the victims and disappeared with them. Out of over 20 reported to have been shot dead, only three lifeless bodies were independently recovered. Contrary to the provisions of the Gunshot Victims and Anti Torture Acts of 2017, the Enugu CP refused the gunshot victims in his custody adequate medical treatments. This was conspicuously seen publicly during his media parade of selected number of the victims of the massacre.

Oduduwa Amotekun are armed, Fulani Miyetti Allah are armed, Fulani terror herdsmen are armed, Fulani funded Bandits are armed, Fulani Ansaru Brigade are armed. They all gather in public without any military or police interference but as soon as Biafran youths congregate in any location to pray, every Nigerian military formation including POLICE, DSS, ARMY, AIR FORCE stationed in the vicinity will descend on them and start firing indiscriminately with the intention of killing as many innocent souls as possible because IPOB is an unarmed peaceful movement. Most shocking of all is that lazy, evil & wicked Nigerian journslists will refer to such unprovoked attack as a CLASH. Little wonder the world see and depict Satan as a black African man. Such mind boggling journalism coupled with the silence of UK & US diplomatic missions to Nigeria is proof that this ongoing Muslim extermination of Judeo-Christian Biafrans has the tacit approval of both countries.  Nigerian Army & Police must be seen and regarded as terrorist groups because when it comes to killing Biafrans, they are definitely worse than Boko Haram and ISWAP put together. The world has lost its conscience. We Biafrans MUST defend our lives. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

A famous Nigerian politician once said (in spirited defense of the Yoruba) that “before I became a Nigerian, I was Yoruba”. And another one said: “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”.

The Yoruba has, in moderation, said his own. The Fulani has, in extremism, said his own. Let me now, as an Igbo, say my own, and here it is: Whoever takes the life of an IPOB member is taking the life of an Igbo and therefore will ultimately account to Ndigbo. It’s not a threat; it’s a fact.

When I read about the senseless and criminal massacre of unarmed innocents who gathered in Enugu on August 23, 2020 in peaceable exercise of their constitutional rights, I quickly began to search the news to learn more and I learnt plenty, including particularly the somewhat dismissive refrain that “those killed are just IPOB members”.

Yes, they might be IPOB members. But guess what? Everybody in the former Eastern Nigeria who disagrees with the fratricidal mess that has become Nigeria is an IPOB member, overtly or covertly.

They don’t have to carry a registration card for you to be certain that they are IPOB members. All you need to do is to talk with them to convince yourself that they are IPOB members.

An IPOB member is simply any Eastern Nigerian (especially the Igbo) who will rather have Biafra than a Nigeria that eats her children, especially her Igbo children. And they are in the millions; they are legion; some are above ground; some are in sleeper cells. And they are not ‘miscreants’; they are the Igbo gentry, the elites, the masses, the warts and all.

So, in this latest case of those mass-murdered by Nigeria’s security forces in Enugu yesterday, it is safe to assume (in terms of the locale) that they are Igbos. And yes - they were borne as Igbos when there was no IPOB.

And to be sure, they were Igbos before they became Nigerians. And even as Nigeria notoriously disdains the Igbo but still wants to keep him in Nigeria, the Igbo remains an Igbo for now and forever, alive or dead. Nobody can change that. No subliminal narrative of “just IPOB” can change that.

Therefore, while it’s correct to say that those killed are “members” of IPOB, it’s wrong to slant it in a way that seeks to detach them from the whole. That whole is mainly Ndigbo, a people that are not terrorists but are branded as such; a people that do not bear arms but are treated as such and thus extrajudicially murdered at the slightest excuse. Why?

And then once such occurs, once they unjustifiably and gleefully spill the sacred Igbo blood, every attempt is made to deride and degrade the fallen as mere IPOB and therefore as less less sacred, all in a clumsy media spin to detach them from Ndigbo.

This has been the constant narrative since 30th August, 2015 when this current spate of mass murders of Ndigbo got underway. I say to you: It doesn’t work; it never will; their blood is never less worthy than the blood of any Igbo. It’s an Igbo thing that you may not understand. It’s deep and medieval. 

So, those that are in command and control in this latest crime against humanity, against Ndigbo should know this: when time comes, it is the entire Igbo that will hold you to account.

If you are not held to account within Nigeria (which is what you are counting on), you will be held to account in the appropriate forum outside of Nigeria and there shall be no statute of limitation stopping it. And sovereign immunity will not be a shield but a sword.

Again, it’s not a threat; it’s a statement of fact. And I say it advisedly, not as the Special Counsel to the IPOB and Nnamdi Kanu (which I am), but as an Igbo who is personally wounded and bereaved any time an innocent Igbo life is taken by rulers of a Nigerian State that will rather pardon a terrorist and kill the unarmed Igbo, while foolishly thinking that there will be no consequences.

Hisbah, the Sharia law enforcement agency in Jigawa, said it had destroyed no fewer than 588 confiscated bottles of beer in Ringim Local Government Area of the state.
Malam Ibrahim Dahiru, the State Commandant of Hisbah, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Dutse on Sunday that the beer was destroyed on Aug. 20.
Dahiru said that the beer was confiscated in Tudun Babaye village, Ringim LGA, during a raid in Gujungu, Kijawal and Wadugur villages in Ringim and Taura Local Government Areas.
He emphasized that consumption of beer was prohibited in all parts of the state, including villages.
The commandant assured that the Hisbah would not relent in its fight against immoral acts, including consumption of alcohol in the state.
Dahiru further advised residents to desist from engaging in vices capable of destroying the society.

MOSCOW (IDN) – Fifty years after Biafran forces surrendered to the Nigerian Federal Military under the Federal Republic of Nigeria's motto of "No-victor, No-vanquished', May 30 has become an official Remembrance Day. It commemorates the memory of the Biafra war between the Government of Nigeria and the State of Biafra from July 1967 to January 1970. Underlining the importance of the armed conflict, the Alaigho Development Foundation (ADF) says: "No patriotic Igbo son or daughter can pretend that Biafra is not part of the history and indeed the major watershed in the history of the Igbo nation."

The Biafra civil war resulted from the fact that the Igbo leadership could no longer coexist with the Northern-dominated Federal Government. The Igbo living in Northern Nigeria were persecuted, the North controlled all the resources, particularly the lucrative oil production in the Niger Delta.

The War ended after two-and-a-half years, during which almost two million Biafran civilians (three-fourth of them small children) died from starvation caused by the total blockade of the region by the Nigerian Government.

According to the ADF, Biafra symbolizes the Igbo people's longing for freedom, underlining their predicament from the Amalgamation in 1914 to the Biafra Declaration on May 30, 1967. Ever since, Biafrans has been a continuous state of estrangement, brutal attacks and punitive measures against their spiritual, economic and political survival.

The Indigenous People of Biafra maintain that Biafra as a group existed 500 years before the creation of Nigeria by Great Britain. On January 1, 1914, Lord Frederick Lugard, the governor of both the Northern Nigeria Protectorate and the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, signed a document consolidating the two, thereby creating the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. Forty-six years later in October 1960, Nigeria gained independence.

Since then, it has witnessed the sharp division of the country into three regions – North, West and East – and this factor has further exacerbated the well-developed economic, political, and social differences among ethnic groups. The Igbo-dominated Eastern States have been struggling for peace and freedom necessary for development since the Civil War ended in 1970.

Professor Nathaniel Aniekwu, the ADF vehemently argues in an interview that 50 years after the Civil War, the growing threats and frequent attacks by northern ethnic groups and deepening pitfalls in the federal governance system have negatively affected the development of Biafra.

The ADF is a registered non-governmental organization (NGO) with the key aim of addressing development issues in Igboland and fighting for justice, human rights and good governance in Nigeria.

Here are excerpts from the Email interview done on June 14:
Fifty years after the Civil War, growing threats and frequent attacks by ethnic groups are affecting development, particularly in the Eastern States of Nigeria. What's behind those threats and attacks?

It is not rocket science that capital (Money) is a coward and therefore does not go where there is insecurity. The Biafra-Nigeria Civil war never really ended. What happened 50 years ago was a transition of the War from open shooting battles to an Economic Strangulation War which has also translated into asymmetric Herdsmen terrorist-based War.

The first morphed face of the War started in 1970, aiming at strangulating the region through Infrastructural Economic deprivation. The federal government policy of offering 20 pounds in return for any amount of wealth deposits an Igbo person had in the bank, especially in the face of the 3Rs (Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction) program of re-establishing the region was not accidental.

This was quickly followed by the Nigeria Enterprises Promotion Decree of 1972, which had as one of its main objectives to promote Nigerian indigenous enterprises to increase indigenous equity participation in the national economy. We were supposed to acquire this equity with the balance of the 20 pounds after feeding.

The current phase of the War is the herdsmen/terrorist-based war, which aims at destroying our agricultural base and make us completely dependent and then overrun and take over our ancestral lands. These are all orchestrated by the same people who could not wipe us out on the battlefields. The world community continuously watches the large-scale atrocities committed in the country. 

As long as these wars are going on, Nigeria cannot know peace and therefore, no real progress. The Eastern region is totally out of the equation from the evidence of our realities. Any growth in the Eastern region must be homegrown and organic. This is the real essence of the ADF's "Aku ruo'ulo" program. Only the desperate and degenerate Chinese will have the temerity to want to invest in Nigeria but with conditions that makes it better for you to live without their investments. 

How would you assess the overall economic development of the Biafra States?

The Biafra States are faring very well given the numerous and insurmountable challenges thrown at them. We have almost no federal presence in the region, no infrastructure, receive the least budget allocations and have the least representation in all the arms of the federal Government. This is what has accounted for this current phase of the War. Ndigbo have indomitable spirits and cannot be rendered null and void economically, as long as they are alive.

The Government is, therefore, on their Plan C, which is physical annihilation and possessing their homelands. All economic indices show that in spite of the War against them, marginalization and exclusion from participation in the governance of Nigeria, the Biafra States continue to be very competitive and are very far from being worse off among the Nigerian States.

Do you think it could have been different if the Southeast or the River States were not under the administration of the Federal Government of Nigeria?

I don't think so, I know it. If they will let us be, even with all the deprivations and infrastructural neglect in place, Ndigbo will grow very quickly to become the go-to place for business. Our detractors know this much and that is what bothers them the most.

What is the economic potential, especially of foreign investments?

The prognosis is very poor. Nobody goes for a swim in the desert. Only desperate investors still consider Nigeria as an investment destination for the earlier mentioned reasons. Although Nigeria is very richly endowed with natural and human resources, it has quickly lost all its shine advantages.

Moreover, whatever remains had been made in the past, has been squandered, especially as they seek to exclude Biafras from participation in political governance. They failed to deploy the appropriate resources, especially manpower, and broad-minded people who can guide and manage the development of the country, simply because most of them come from the Biafra States. 

Under the current circumstances, how can the Government facilitate foreign investment to the region?

The bus has already left the station. The trust has been breached and the centre can no longer hold. As a Christian, I believe that nothing is impossible with God. But we are not God. We have squandered a lot of goodwill, which all developmental programs required.

Frankly speaking, only a dedicated team of experts can possibly do a lot, if all the impediments on our paths are removed, the trust deficit reversed, religion seizes to be so dominant in our decision-making process, the herdsmen/terrorists are reigned in, ethnicity seizes to be a criteria for appointments and recognitions.

Furthermore, if the ethnic nationalities will come together and decide on the form and degree of association they will have in a restructured Nigeria, and the level of authority that should reside at the centre: if we shall confess and repent our sins and seek forgiveness, then perhaps, we stand a chance of reversing the damage.

Do you see any possibilities for national integration and a new leadership paradigm?

National integration is a very clear possibility, especially for the Biafra States. In fact, it is our only hope. Remember that Nigeria is made of many unwilling nations fused into the entity called Federal Republic of Nigeria. These nations have their inalienable right of association and with whomsoever they chose. These nations must choose their paths of integration.

For Ndigbo, not only that internal cohesion is imperative but also integrating in a union of the agreed is paramount. Leadership is very critical in attaining these objectives and this is where the paradigm shift is called for. Leadership must be looked from the point of view of the governed, at the micro-level of the society. A leadership that is organic and evolves from the people. Not a leadership foisted on the people by a band of degenerates.

Leadership paradigm shift is needed to look at the Igbo man as he is, what his essence is and then, try and appeal to that essence. Being republican in his core essence means that you cannot lead him the same way you lead the Yorubas or the Hausas. A leadership that achieves this will have a followership similar to what we had with Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe in the first republic or the followership General Odumegwu Ojukwu had during the War.

Note that the followership was so strong that during the War. Professor M. A. C. Odu and Ishiozo Mbu Amohuru went into the Nigerian territory, hijacked an aircraft and flew it down to Biafra. Such were the level of risks and sacrifices they undertook.

Please note carefully that when the same General Ojukwu joined the NPN upon his return from exile, Ndigbo unfollowed him, because he no longer represented their aspirations. That is the Igbo man. Seen from this perspective, the Igbo man is very easy to lead as long as the leader is ready to be transparent and represent their aspirations.

Does that mean there are weaknesses in the Federal System of Governance?

I don't know if there is anything wrong with the federal system, but problems can arise as a result of application of systems that are not suitable to the Nigerian environment. Obviously, the federal system of Government is not working in Nigeria given the unique nature of the Nigerian political space. We must therefore return to the solution domain, seek long-term solutions that are organic (homegrown) and suitable to our environment.

Femi Fani-Kayode, former Aviation Minister, has urged the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government to stop its security operatives from attacking members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.

Fani-Kayode made the call while condemning the clash between IPOB members and security operatives in Enugu that left some people dead on Sunday.

In a series of tweets, the former Minister warned that the ranks of IPOB would continue to swel
Femi Fani-Kayode, former Aviation Minister, has urged the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government to stop its security operatives from attacking members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.

Fani-Kayode made the call while condemning the clash between IPOB members and security operatives in Enugu that left some people dead on Sunday.

In a series of tweets, the former Minister warned that the ranks of IPOB would continue to swell if the security continues to attack them.

According to Fani-Kayode: “I deplore and condemn the slaughter of young IPOB members in Enugu yesterday by the FG-controlled security forces. Butchering innocent and defenceless young people who were not carrying arms simply because they were having a meeting does not make sense & does not help matters.

“Rather it strengthens their cause, hardens their hearts, emboldens their resolve, legitimises their struggle and wins them sympathy and new friends all over the world. It is also a crime against humanity and those that carry out such murderous operations and dole out such orders become automatic candidates for the ICC at the Hague.

“Repression fuels the struggle for liberation and freedom rather than stifle it. The more IPOB youths are killed the more their ranks will swell. I call on the Buhari administration to stop this open display of madness and gratuitous violence against its own citizens and to be more tolerant, accommodating and restrained.I call for a cessation of hostilities and state-sponsored violence & on the FG to lift the ban on IPOB and enter into negotiations with them before it is too late.

“We must build bridges and not burn them. We must have the courage to talk to those who we may disagree with but who genuinely feel hurt and aggrieved and bring them back to the table.

“We must find a more civilised and humane way to resolve our differences.”

The leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has sent a message to a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr Obadiah Mailafia, after his invitation by the Department of State Services (DSS) for accusing a serving northern governor of sponsoring Boko Haram.

Naija News had reported earlier that the former CBN Deputy Governor had said while reacting to the insecurity issues affecting South Kaduna during an interview on Nigerian Info, that a serving governor in the northern part of the country is the person sponsoring the activities of the dread Boko Haram.

Mailafiya had said that the information that a serving northern governor is the commander of Boko Haram” was revealed by the former high commanders of the group who have repented.

When asked if the government was unwilling or unable to protect the people of Kaduna, Mailafiya had said; “In fact, it is not only unable, but it is also unwilling and we have good reason to feel that they are part and parcel of the killers let me make some revelations to you”

“How will a government just say it is revenge killings and so on, then you leave it there because it is revenge killings and so on. The body language of this administration, the body language of the state government shows clearly that they have a hand in the killings, no doubt about it.”

“Let me make some revelations because some of us also have our own intelligence networks, have met with some of the bandits, we have met with some of their high commanders, one or two who have repented, they have sat down with us, not once, not twice. They told us one of the Northern governors is the Commander of Boko Haram in Nigeria”.

“Boko Haram and the bandits are one and the same thing. They have a sophisticated network. During the lockdown, their planes were moving up and down as if there was no lockdown,” he had said.

However, barely 24-hours after his comment, accusing a northern governor of sponsoring Boko Haram, Mailafia confirmed that he was summoned to the Jos office of the DSS. “Yes, it true. The DSS invited me to appear in their Jos office tomorrow (Wednesday) by noon,” the former CBN Deputy Governor had said.

Naija News recalls that Mailafiya honoured the DSS invitation and also apologized for his comments

Reacting to the development in a tweet on the micro-blogging site, Twitter, Kanu assured Mailafiya that his group, the Indigenous People of Biafra is solidly behind him.

The IPOB leader tweeted: “As received on WhatsApp ��  ”The police have come to my house in NIPSS Kuru. They may want to bundle me to Abuja. Urgent help” – Obadiah Mailafia, the former Deputy Gov of CBN who outed a Northern Gov as #BokoHaram commander. Dr Mailafia, #IPOB is with you. We got your back!”