Group blames Ohanaeze, S’East Govs, Ekweremadu Over proscription of IPOB

An Igbo group, Voice from the East (VEAST) has accused the Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, as well as the governors of the South East governors of being the arrow-heads in the Federal Government’s proscription the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.

The group, which expressed anger of the fate of IPOB, posited that it was the Igbo leaders’ action that spurred the Federal Government to tag IPOB a terrorist organisation.

In a statement issued by its convener, Comrade Kindness Jonah, he alleged that the Igbo leaders should take the blame for the terrorist tag on IPOB, and not President MuhammaduBuhari.

Jonah said: “We did a critical evaluation of the tag of ‘terrorism’ given to IPOB with a view to discovering who really is responsible between Ekweremadu, Nwodo’s Ohanaeze Ndigbo and South East governors on one hand, and Muhammadu Buhari’s presidency on the other.

“The word ‘proscription’ in Oxford Advance Learners Dictionary means ‘to state officially that something is dangerous or forbidden, ’hence Igbo governors with Ohanaeze Ndigbo, alongside Ike Ekweremadu, stated officially that IPOB is dangerous, and said officially that IPOB is forbidden. What then is terrorism tag aside being dangerous, and so forbidden? What is the difference between a terrorist and a forbidden person? What is the difference between a dangerous person and a terrorist?” the group asked.

“We wondered why Arewa Consultative Forum with its Northern Elders’ Council (NEF) did not proscribe Arewa youths when they gave Igbo quit notice in all the northern states. Why have the Sokoto Caliphate with its Sultan, alongside Ango Abdullahi, Paul Unongo, Sulu Gambari, the emirs of Kano, Fika, Gwandu, Zauzzau and Islamic leaders in the North not declared herdsmen terrorist group which they really are, despite the undeniable bloodletting they perpetrate?

“The rush with which Nwodo, Ekweremadu and the governors did to proscribe IPOB, despite the glaring fact they never killed anybody, shows that these Igbo leaders are insincere,” he said.

Jonah therefore declared that Buhari was not responsible for the branding of IPOB a terrorist group, but Igbo leaders.